Gamecocks Hit the Road for Tuesday Night Affair at NC State

Oct. 12, 2015

South Carolina at NC State
Dail Soccer Stadium – Raleigh, N.C.
Tues., Oct. 13, 7 PM EDT
ESPN3/WatchESPN | Live Stats | @GamecockMSoccer

15 SC Men’s Soccer Notes 10/12

Coach Berson Mic’d Up
Conference USA Soccer: An Elite History
Berson’s Influence Felt On and Off the Field – Courtesy of Spurs and Feathers

South Carolina Team Notes

The Gamecocks matched their three-or-more-goal outings from a year ago already. They tallied three three-goal matches in the first seven, while last year’s team had three on the year out of 20.
South Carolina has gone 5-1 since adjusting its back line starters and goalkeeper, with junior Koty Millard moving back along with freshman Peyton Ericson and sophomore William Pyle becoming starters for all six matches in the stretch.
Junior Danny Deakin leads Conference USA in points (18) and is tied for tops in the league in goals (8).

Offense Highlights from the First Half of the Season

South Carolina’s midfielders posted some explosive offense in the early going of 2015.
Senior Jeffrey Torda has three Gamecock game-winners, the second getting national recognition.
His scissor kick goal made the No. 2 spot on ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays for Aug. 31.
Junior Danny Deakin followed two matches later with a hat trick, scoring all three goals against UNC Greensboro.
That Sept. 8 Gamecock hat trick came almost exactly 14 years after the previous one, as Jordan Quinn recorded his on Sept. 9, 2001, against TCU.
Deakin now has two braces (two goals), coming in home wins over No. 8 Elon, scoring both in the second half, and Florida Atlantic, tallying both in the first period.
Junior Koty Millard has a goal and a team-best four assists, redshirt senior Asa Kryst has a goal and two assists, while senior Ryan Arambula has three assists and junior Kurtis Turner has one.
As a group, they have tallied 68 percent of the goals and 87 percent of the assists.

Forwards Produced in Win Streak

Gamecock forwards Kevin Walker and Bjorn Gudjonsson have come on strong recently.
Walker scored the first Gamecock goal in three straight outings in the four-match winning streak.
He’s the first Gamecock since Mahamoudou Kaba in 2013 to score in three consecutive matches.
Gudjonsson made his return to the pitch at Marshall and promptly scored the game-winning goal, his first collegiate tally.
With the shift in alignment making Jeffrey Torda and Asa Kryst forwards, the Gamecocks have seen six of their last 10 goals come from the front line.

We Schedule Top Competition

Of the 17 regular-season matches scheduled for the Gamecocks, 12 come against top-100 RPI teams in the final 2014 report from the NCAA.
Ten of those ranked in the top 50, five from C-USA (Charlotte, Kentucky, UAB, Old Dominion and New Mexico).
Four foes made the NSCAA/Continental Tire Preseason Top 25, with five more among those receiving votes.
Eight of the Gamecocks’ foes made last year’s NCAA Tournament.
South Carolina has faced six RPI top-35 foes already and have four of their final six matches against teams currently in the top 50 of the RPI.

Berson Now Fifth on NCAA Division I Coaching Wins List

The only head coach in South Carolina men’s soccer history, Mark Berson ranks as one of four coaches in NCAA Division I history with 450 wins at one institution.
The active Division I wins leader, Berson owns 479 career victories in 38 years, which includes his 11 in 1977 at The Citadel.
He is fifth on the NCAA Division I wins list and 15th on the all-divisions listing.
Six wins ties Berson for 14th on the all-divisions list with Skip Roderick, who retired after last season at Elizabethtown with 485 career wins.
Berson coached his 750th collegiate match vs. Kentucky on Oct. 25, 2014.
He’s coached 11 players who have captured 13 All-America nods at South Carolina.
He’s also guided at least one player on each of the past four US Men’s National Teams in the World Cup (Clint Mathis 2002, Josh Woolf 2002 and 2006, Brad Guzan 2010 and 2014).

Homegrown Gamecocks Highlight 2015 Roster

Eight Gamecock players hail from inside the Palmetto State, highlighting Mark Berson’s commitment to recruiting and developing local talent.
Three of those started in the first five matches: seniors Ryan Arambula and Wesley Eads as well as junior Koty Millard.
For the past decade, South Carolina’s roster has increased its number of natives on the team, with six or more on each squad since 2006, a mark only hit twice in the previous 15 years.

Gamecocks Have a Rich History in NCAA Tournament

On 20 occasions, the Gamecocks made an NCAA Tournament, the most in Conference USA.
Eleven times, the Gamecocks have played the NCAA Tournament Round of 16.
South Carolina is 16-19-1 in the tourney, making two College Cups in 1988 and 1993.

Beating Two Top-10 Teams in a Week Brings Recognition

The Gamecocks won their first game vs. an NSCAA top-10 team since 2013 by downing No. 8 Elon 3-1 on Tues., Sept. 22.
They followed that with a 2-1 overtime victory over No. 7 New Mexico on Fri, Sept. 25.
It’s the second time South Carolina has downed top-10 foes in consecutive matches, matching wins in 2000 over No. 3 Virginia and No. 8 Maryland (9/8-10).
Goalkeeper William Pyle earned the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week nod and made Top Drawer Soccer’s (TDS) Team of the Week for his efforts.
College Soccer News (CSN) put midfielder Danny Deakin on its Team of the Week after his two goals in the Elon win.
All four national polls recognized the Gamecocks, with the NSCAA putting the squad 19th in the country on Sept. 29.

Attendance Outstanding at Stone Stadium

In the 2015 season opener, 4,325 fans packed the stands for the eighth-largest crowd to watch a men’s match in Stone Stadium’s history.
In the Oct. 11 report from the NCAA, South Carolina ranks sixth in average attendance this season, with 2,824 fans counted through six home matches.
Over 1,000 season tickets have been sold for Gamecock Soccer in 2015.
The first two exhibitions of 2015 also saw over 4,000 students scan in for each, filling the stands.
The 2014 Gamecocks had the fifth-highest paid attendance average in NCAA Division I at 2,602.
That 2,602 attendance average is the largest for a season in Stone Stadium history.

Roster Notes

South Carolina brings back 13 letter-winners and 16 members from the squad that made the 2014 Conference USA Tournament Championship Match.
Ten newcomers join the group: three transfers and seven freshmen.
The Gamecocks return 47 percent of their goals and 57 percent of their assists from last year.
Third-team All-Conference USA midfielder Kurtis Turner is the top returning scorer.
Turner has led the Gamecocks in assists in each of his first two years.
Junior goalkeeper Marco Velez is also back after playing 87 percent of the minutes in goal and recording three solo shutouts last season.

The Gamecocks Shine in the Classroom as Well

South Carolina’s 16 returners have a total of 26 SEC Academic Honor Roll certificates and 25 Conference USA Academic Honor Roll notations between them.
Last season, 20 of the roster members picked up spots on each honor roll.
Ryan Arambula (three) and Jeffrey Torda (two) both own multiple C-USA Academic Medals, which go to honorees holding a 3.75 cumulative GPA or higher.
Both seniors also have CoSIDA Academic All-District nods, Arambula in 2013 and Torda in 2014.
Ten times, SC has garnered the NSCAA Team Academic Award, including in each of the past seven years.
Twice in the past six years, the Gamecocks have captured the top GPA in NCAA Division I according to the NSCAA.

Scouting Scouting NC State

The Wolfpack enters the week at 6-2-3, posting three-straight ties against top-25 teams.
Most recently, NC State drew a scoreless tie against No. 6 Wake Forest, three days after the Gamecocks fell in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Pack outshoot their foes 142-95 and outscore them 17-11.
Zach Knudson leads the way wiht four goals and nine points, while Yanni Hachem has three goals and seven points.
Simon Blotko and Travis Wannemuehler both have three assists, tops on the team.
NC State has scored on three penalty kicks, while their foes have only one to their credit.
In goal, Alex McCauley has played every minute, tallying a 0.92 goals against average in 1,071 minutes.
He’s made 28 stops in those 11 matches, and he’s posted three shutouts.

Series History vs. the Wolfpack

South Carolina owns a 9-8-1 advantage in the series that dates back to 1981.
NC State leads 4-3 in matches in Raleigh.

11th Year for South Carolina in Conference USA

The 2015 season is South Carolina’s 11th as a men’s soccer affiliate member of Conference USA.
In 2011, the Garnet and Black captured the league’s regular-season crown, sharing it with UAB.
Twice more, the Gamecocks won the league’s tournament, in 2005 and 2010.
South Carolina’s student-athletes have taken 48 all-league nods, with 14 coming on the first team.
In C-USA outings, South Carolina owns a 42-28-16 (.581) mark.
On the road, that mark is 21-13-10 (.591). At Stone Stadium, that record is 21-15-6 (.571).
The 2014 Gamecocks fell one game shy of their fifth undefeated road slate in their C-USA history.