Bobcats semifinal-bound

The GCSU soccer team advanced to the second round of the Peach Belt Conference tournament with a victory over North Georgia College & State University on Tuesday night, three days after concluding the regular season with a fifth-straight tie.

On Tuesday, the Bobcats were at home against NGCSU in the first round of the Peach Belt Conference tournament.

The fourth-seed Bobcats struck first when in the 29th minute, a shot by junior defender/midfielder Ally Treat was deflected to senior forward Jamie Nevin, who placed a shot into the left side of the Saints’ net and gave GCSU a 1-0 lead.

After Nevin’s goal, neither team scored for the remainder of the first half and the game remained 1-0 in favor of GCSU.

Less than ten minutes into the second half, GCSU earned a two-goal cushion when a corner kick from senior midfielder/defender Daria Owen made its way to McAlpin, who slammed a powerful shot into the top of the Saints’ net.

“We knew we had to win and we knew we had to push it, sophomore midfielder/forward Megan McAlpin said. “We wanted it more than them and we proved it.”

The Bobcats continued to hold the lead, even though the Saints managed to score a late goal to make the final score 2-1.

“I think we dominated most of the game,” Nevin said. “The end was kind of a battle because they sent everyone forward but it was a good result and I’m glad we won.”

In the GCSU goal, junior goalkeeper Mary Rob Plunkett made four saves and allowed only one shot to get past her.

The victory over North Georgia propelled the Bobcats to the PBC semifinals, where they will be on the road to Evans to face the University of Montevallo again tonight. The Falcons shocked top-seed Columbus State University 1-0 on Tuesday. The Cougar loss means that the perennial power will not win the PBC tournament for the first time in four years.

A GCSU victory tonight would place them in Sunday’s championship game against either second-seed Armstrong Atlantic State University or third-seed Lander University. The Bobcats lost to AASU 1-0 and tied Lander 0-0 during the regular season.

“At this point in the game, we’ve just got to keep emphasizing the good things,” head coach Juan Pablo Favero said. “We emphasize our defenses and attitude and we’ve got to try to get a shutout again, that’s the goal.”

Prior to the tournament opener, the University of Montevallo Falcons came to Bobcat Field to provide the final tune-up for the postseason this past Saturday. At the start of the first half, both teams came out on the field playing aggressively and even though GCSU outshot Montevallo 6-5, neither team managed to put a ball into their opponents’ net and the first half ended with a 0-0 score.

In the second half, the Bobcats continued to outshoot Montevallo, and their efforts paid off in the 54th minute, a drop pass from McAlpin found its way to Nevin, who was able to shoot into the far corner of the Falcons’ net, giving GCSU a 1-0 advantage over Montevallo.

Shortly following the GCSU goal, the Falcons managed to tie the score in 66th minute in when a penalty kick due to a Bobcat handball found GCSU’s net and tied the score at 1-1.

Despite GCSU out-shooting Montevallo 10-8 in the second half, the game remained deadlocked and went into overtime.

After an intense 10 minutes of overtime, neither team could break the tie and the game was sent into a second overtime period.

Neither squad was able to find the back of the net, however and the game finished 1-1.

In the Bobcat goal, Plunkett made 10 saves, allowing just the one shot to get past her.

“It was a disappointing result, I thought we did enough to win,” Favero said. “They weren’t a bad team, but I thought we played better.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 6 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry