MEN’S SOCCER DOESN’T PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS

Ian Richardson

The UNCW men’s soccer team apparently doesn’t like to share.

The Seahawks topped College of Charleston to win their second tournament in as many weeks, as they went 2-0 for the weekend in the UNCW-Jameson Inn Soccer Classic.

Last week, UNCW shared a piece of the title with the Cougars in the Nike-Aaron Olitsky Memorial Classic.

The Seahawks got the weekend off to a good start with a come from behind 2-1 victory over Stony Brook Friday night. The majority of the match was controlled by the Seahawks, but it was the Sea Wolves who opened the scoring late in the first half.

UNCW was able to claw back through work from seniors Russell Bienias and Rick Henderson. Bienias latched onto a Seahawk goal kick and fed Henderson in behind the defense. Henderson beat his defender to the ball and slipped a shot past the keeper to level the score.

Minutes later, Freshman Pedro Pereira grabbed the winner when he fired an unexpected shot from 25 yards that caught the Stony Brook keeper napping.

After the impressive win against a team that appeared in last year’s NCAA Tournament, much was still left to be done against a strong College of Charleston side on Sunday.

The Seahawks had to overcome two missed penalty kicks to obtain the hard-fought 1-0 win. Freshman Kirk Hudgins goal in the 56th minute proved to be enough as senior goalkeeper Brad Knighton recorded the shutout.

Pereira and Knighton were named tournament most valuable player and defensive MVP, respectively. In addition, seniors Thomas King and Russell Bienias were included in the all-tournament team.

With the Seahawks hitting the road for four matches, Head Coach Aidan Heaney was pleased with the efforts in the brief home stay.

“Obviously we don’t want to lose at home,” he said. “We want to do everything we can to make this a tough place to play.”

With two of the weekend’s three goals coming from freshmen, Heaney praised the effort of his youngsters.

“It’s always great to get contributions from those guys. Now if we can get everybody to contribute at the right times, we’ll really be a good team.”