Dream ends abruptly

By Nathan Walls
Editor

When the UNCP men’s soccer team lost off penalty kicks in the first round of the NCAA Division II tournament to Carson-Newman last Thursday at the County University Soccer Stadium in Spartanburg, S.C., they were suffering from a case of déjà vu.

Four days earlier, the Braves lost the Peach Belt Conference championship off penalty kicks to USC-Spartanburg on the very same field, with similar weather conditions, after the Rifles battled them to a 1-1 tie in regulation.

The same thing happened against Carson-Newman: a 1-1 standstill at the end of the regular time period and elimination after a 4-3 shootout.

Braves assistant coach Marco Genee was unimpressed with the referees in both games, also.

“We scored enough goals to win the game, but the referees were not on our side and called the goals off,” Genee said. “It’s very tough to win games when the referees are not on both sides.”

The Spartanburg game went into shootout mode after the second half and Josh Richardson shot a grounder past UNCP keeper Alex Hall, to give the Rifles their ninth conference championship in 13 years.

Fast forward to last Thursday. The Braves, making a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time in team history, were the No. 2 seed in the Southeast region with a re-match against the region’s top seed, Spartanburg, waiting in the wings.

Marius Arnsen put No. 3 seed Carson-Newman up 1-0 with a score that occurred with 0.7 seconds left before halftime.

Ahmet Yenisen tied things up with a strike in the 56th minute. The Braves continued to attack the Eagles defense but were unsuccessful in putting them away.

Arnsen scored a penalty kick in the extra frame for a 4-3 shootout edge, but UNCP’s Christian Kucklick had his shot stopped by Eagles keeper Tyler Baldock. The denial by Baldock ended UNCP’s dream season at 17-1-2.

UNCP head coach Mike Schaeffer was upset with the losses, but didn’t feel the officiating was lackluster.

“There is no doubt that penalty kicks is a horrible way to decide a soccer match. It is extremely tough to lose a championship and be eliminated from the NCAAs without losing a game in the two tournaments, but those are the rules we live by,” Schaeffer said. “Generally, I felt like the officiating was fair. While I didn’t agree with every call, we could have won both games had we taken better advantage of the offensive possession and shots that we enjoyed.”

Incidentally, Carson-Newman went on to derail Spartanburg via another shootout last Saturday in the second round of the NCAAs. Spartanburg’s season ended the same as UNCP’s did: a 1-1 tie after 90 minutes and a 4-3 ousting on penalty kicks.

It happened on the same field, too.

The only difference: UNCP wasn’t playing.