Gamecocks Traveling East To Face Chanticleers
Sept. 8, 2016
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina men’s soccer team (1-2-0) heads east for its first true road game of the season at Coastal Carolina (0-2-1) Friday night. The two teams will be squaring off for the fifth straight season.
“It’ll be a big test. Coastal year in and year out has a wonderful team,” said Head Coach Mark Berson. “They’re well coached, and it’ll be a really competitive game for us. The fact that it’s on the road will also be a challenge. First official road game for our guys and we bring some pretty young guys out there. It should be a great game.”
Last season, the Gamecocks knocked off the No. 11 Chanticleers 1-0 on Senior Night. The win marked just the second time in school history Carolina finished the regular season with a perfect record at home. Trygve Ellingstad scored the team’s lone goal in the match.
The Gamecocks will continue to wear teal warmup shirts for the contest to help raise awareness for ovarian cancer (read below for more details).
GAMECOCK QUICK HITS
– Mark Berson is the winningest active NCAA Division I coach, 5th on the all-time NCAA D1 list
– Berson is tied for the most NCAA Tournament appearances among active DI coaches with 21
– South Carolina has two C-USA Tournament titles and two regular-season crowns in 11 years
– The 2015 Gamecocks advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament
– The Gamecocks return 17 letterwinners from last season’s squad
– South Carolina returns eight starters from last season’s squad
– The Gamecocks were undefeated at Stone Stadium last season with an 8-0-2 record
– Senior midfielder Danny Deakin leads the Carolina offense after scoring 11 goals last season
– Deakin and fellow senior Koty Millard were both named to the 2016 Preseason All-C-USA Team
– Deakin was named to the CollegeSoccerNews 2016 Preseason All-America Second Team
– The Gamecocks suffered a 2-1 loss vs. No. 3 Clemson in the 2016 season opener on Aug. 26
– South Carolina picked up its first win of the season on Sept. 4 after beating UCF, 2-1
– Seniors Kevin Walker and Danny Deakin each scored goals in the match vs. the Knights
– It was Walker’s team-leading second goal of the season
– Deakin’s was his first of the year and 12th of his Gamecock career
– Freshman Luca Mayr scored his first career goal as a Gamecock vs. Mercer on Aug. 30
– Deakin assisted on both goals vs. the Bears to notch his first two assists of the season
– Walker (2G) and Deakin (1G, 2A) are tied for the team lead with four points through three games
RECORD CROWD WATCHES SOUTH CAROLINA SEASON OPENER VS. CLEMSON
A new Stone Stadium attendance record was set last Friday in the 2016 season opener vs. Clemson, as 6,892 fans attended the matchup. The mark broke the previous record of 6,157, also set vs. Clemson on Sept. 3, 2010.
OVARIAN CANCER AWARENESS MONTH
The Carolina men’s soccer team is supporting Ovarian Cancer Awareness month in September by wearing teal warmup jerseys for their matches. In addition to the teal warm up jerseys and shoelaces for the South Carolina team, the Gamecock coaching staff and support staff will be wearing teal polo shirts, while the goalkeeper will be donning a teal jersey.
SCOUTING COASTAL CAROLINA
The Chanticleers return 10 lettermen, including five starters, from a team that went 13-3-4 last season and finshed the year ranked No. 20 in the final NSCAA poll. They were voted the preseason favorites to win the Sun Belt Conference in 2016. Coastal is led by junior forward Frantzdy Pierrot, who was voted Sun Belt Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year alongside Hartwick’s Jamie O’Grady. CCU had four player’s named to the preseason all-conference team: Pierrot, junior midfielder Louis Dargent, senior defender Elis Bjornsson and senior defender Einar Einarsson. Coastal lost two road matches to start the year falling 2-1 at No. 17 Virginia and 2-1 at William & Mary. They recently played UAB to a 0-0 draw at home. The Chanticleers outshot the Blazers 27-9 in the match with 10 shots on goal.
