Final Box (pdf)
ATLANTA – The Coastal Carolina men's soccer team used a big second-half run to defeat Georgia Southern 6-0 in Friday's first game of the Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Championship in Atlanta, Ga.
After leading 1-0 at the half, the Chants (6-1) scored three goals over a 3:47 span to push the score out to 4-0 and put the match away then, even though they added two more late goals.
CCU got goals from four different players, with two of those adding two goals each.
Marcelo Lage started the scoring in the 29th minute with his fourth goal of the season.
Emile Rzepecki picked up the assist, his first of the season.
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, Georgia Southern (1-9) put some pressure on the Chants defense with several early shots, but led by All-Sun Belt goalie
Tor Saunders' two saves, the Chants kept the Eagles from scoring.
In the 62nd minute the scoring barrage started.
Marcello Jones, doing what he does best, picked up his conference-leading fifth assist when he found
Kasper Skraep on a corner kick to push the Chants lead to 2-0. Just a little over a minute later Lage added his second goal of the match off an assist from Estaban Leiva and CCU led 3-0. But CCU was not through as Jones added an unassisted goal in the 66th minute and the score stood 4-0 in favor of the Chants.
CCU's Leiva added his first two goals of the season in the 71st and 83rd minute off assists from
Kazuki Kimura and
Yochai Kariv. It was the first assists of the season for both players.
The Chants took 18 shots in the match with nine of those on goal, while Georgia Southern took seven with two on goal.
The shutout was the fourth of the season for Saunders as he added two more saves to his saves total this season.
The six goals are the most goals a CCU team has scored since October 13, 2012, when they defeated VMI 8-0.
The Chants will face Georgia State, who advanced into the finals by defeating Central Arkansas 4-2 on penalty kicks. Sunday's championship match is set to begin at 1 p.m. ET at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta.
For complete coverage of CCU men's soccer, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalMSoccer (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.
