Oct. 31, 2004
COLUMBIA, S.C. – – The No. 25 University of South Carolina men’s soccer team earned a 1-0 victory over 13th-ranked Duke Sunday afternoon at Stone Stadium. Freshman Sebastian Lindholm scored his fourth goal of the season to give the Gamecocks their 10th victory and improve their record to 10-5-1. Duke fell to 13-4-0 with the loss.
“I think this was a tremendous win for our team,” South Carolina coach Mark Berson said. “Duke is an excellent team. We played exceptionally well today. I’m happy that we got the goal, but also that we created a lot of chances. We were a step offsides a few times and we got behind them a lot. I was pleased with our defensive effort today, too. This is an especially big win at this time of the year.”
The Gamecocks took control of the match at 61:11. Lindhom played the ball to sophomore Ayo Akinsete, but Duke goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge knocked the ball down for the save. The play wasn’t dead though as Lindholm came up with the rebound, and put it away for the 1-0 lead. Akinsete earned an assist on the play.
Duke and South Carolina took turns on the attack over the final 29 minutes of play, both teams threatening to score. But the score would remain, 1-0, as time elapsed.
The Gamecocks generated an excellent scoring chance in the first minute of the match. After Duke was called offsides, USC goalkeeper Brad Guzan played a quick punt to Josh Alcala at midfield. Alcala knocked the ball ahead to a streaking Ayo Akinsete, who dribbled into the box and took a shot. Unfortunately for Carolina, Blue Devil goalkeeper Justin Trowbridge picked up the save.
South Carolina appeared to have scored the first goal of the match with less than 10 minutes left to play in the first half. Sebastian Lindholm sent a cross to J.D. Moon and Moon flicked the ball to Ryan Deter into the box. Deter knocked the ball into the back of the net, but the referee ruled that he was offsides.
Just over seven minutes into the second half, Duke’s Spencer Wadsworth hit a shot off the post. And in the 68th minute the Blue Devils nearly converted another shot as Owoicho Adogwa’s attempted grazed the cross bar.
Sunday’s match marked just the second time this season the Blue Devils had failed to score. On Oct. 17, they fell at North Carolina State, 1-0.
Both teams attempted 14 shots in the match. Carolina goalkeeper Brad Guzan made four saves while Trowbridge stopped five shots for Duke. The Blue Devils had nine corner kicks to just one for the Gamecocks.
Wadsworth led Duke with four shots, including two on goal. Three of Lindholm’s four shot attempts were on goal to pace the Gamecocks.
South Carolina is now 6-2 at Stone Stadium this season, and the Gamecocks evened their all-time series with the Blue Devils at 8-8-2. Today’s win also gave the Gamecocks a 3-1 record against teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004. USC previously defeated Wake Forest (1-0 on Sept. 24) and Clemson (1-0 on Oct. 10). Their only loss came on the road at North Carolina (2-0 on Oct. 16).
“We played well at both ends of the field today,” Berson said. “This is an excellent young team that is capable of beating anybody on any given day. That’s our challenge, to come out and play the way we are capable of playing every time.”
USC has three regular season matches left to play. Next weekend, the Gamecocks will travel to Charleston to play in the Aaron Olitsky Memorial Classic. South Carolina is set to face Coastal Carolina on Friday, Nov. 5, at 5 p.m. and take on Alabama A&M on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 2:30 p.m. The Gamecocks close out the regular season with a match against Florida International on Sunday, Nov. 14, at Stone Stadium.
