MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Coastal Carolina men’s soccer came from behind for the fourth time this year to defeat the College of Charleston, 3-2 Wednesday night at Patriots Point.

 

In a game that yielded nine cautions, Coastal kept its composure to overcome a 2-1 first half deficit to earn its first win over the Cougars in Charleston since 2006.

 

Ashton Bennett opened the scoring for the Chants in the sixth minute of the game on a pass from Ricky Garbanzo to give Coastal the early 1-0 advantage. Charleston answered less than a minute later on a pass from Joey De Mare to Sean de Silva for the equalizer in the seventh minute.

 

College broke the tie in the 44^th minute on a throw-in that was initially headed by Robbie Benson before Troy Peterson followed with a header himself to put the Cougars up 2-1. Coastal countered with a goal in the 45^th minute to knot the score at 2-2 on a pass from Henrik Robstad to Bennett for his second goal of the night, giving him a team-high 11 goals on the season.

 

The game remained square at two apiece until Ricky Garbanzo headed in a corner kick by Justin Portillo to give Coastal the eventual game winner in the 80^th minute.

 

College of Charleston was booked for seven yellow cards with five of them coming in the first half while Coastal was charged with two.

 

Bennett is now averaging 1.10 goals per game and entered Wednesday’s contest ranking fourth in the NCAA in goals per game average. Through 10 games Coastal is averaging 2.80 goals per game while holding opponents to 1.00.

 

The Chants recorded 16 shots with nine on goal compared to College of Charleston’s eight shot attempts with four on frame.

 

The 23^rd-ranked Chanticleers return to the pitch on Sunday, Oct. 9 when they play host to the Radford Highlanders for a 2:00 p.m. matinee at the CCU Soccer Field.