South Carolina Taking On Georgia Southern Tuesday
Sept. 12, 2016
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina (1-3-0) returns home Tuesday night to face Georgia Southern (2-2-1) in its last nonconference game before entering conference play on the road Saturday at Florida Atlantic. It will be the Gamecocks last home match until Sept. 24.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Head Coach Mark Berson. “Great to come back home. Our fans at home are unbelievable, so it’s a great place for us to play. It’s exciting to get back home again. Obviously we need to get on the winning ways here. Georgia Southern brings a very good team in here. They’re off to one of their best starts in several years, so it’ll be a big challenge for us.”
Last season, Carolina downed GSU 4-2 in front of 3,735 fans at Stone Stadium. Koty Millard, Danny Deakin, Kevin Walker and Jeffrey Torda all found the back of the net for the Gamecocks.
South Carolina 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
– 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
– Goalkeeper William Pyle has 11 saves in two games, good for an .846 save percentage
– GSU assistant coach Geoff del Forn played collegiately for three seasons at South Carolina under Berson
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 GEORGIA SOUTHERN
The Eagles are led by junior forward Blake Wilson. He leads the team in points (6), goals (3), shots (13) and shots on goal (6). Wilson had a hat trick in the team’s opening game vs. Houston Baptist, which was a 4-1 win. GSU’s lineup features four different players with one goal each: Rasmus Juul, Emil Laursen, Sander Wang and Adam Abdellaoui. Goalkeeper Chase Herzog has 11 saves in four games played with a .647 save percentage. The Eagles scoring offense averages 1.4 goals per game (T-87 nationally). Tuesday night will be just the sixth meeting all-time between Carolina and Georgia Southern. The Gamecocks and Eagles first met on the pitch on October 20, 1982. South Carolina won 4-0.
