After a first half in which neither team recorded a shot on goal, the Pack offense came alive for two second half scores on six shots on goal en route to a 2-0 win Tuesday night at Dail Soccer Field over the previously undefeated Wofford Terriers.
The win advanced State’s season record to 7-2-1 and dropped Wofford to 5-3-1.
Senior midfielder Alan Sanchez said the win has State confident going into Friday’s away game against No. 8 Duke.
“I believe this puts us in an unbelievable situation,” Sanchez said. “Our confidence is up and I feel like we are going to give Duke a good game. Hopefully we’ll win and well be in the top 10.”
A shutout performance by redshirt senior goalkeeper Chris Widman and a pair of goals from senior midfielder Alan Sanchez and junior midfielder Chris Zuerner combined to account for the final score. In the 63rd minute, Sanchez headed the ball over Wofford goalie Thomas Hunter on a cross from junior defender Lucas Carpenter.
According to Sanchez, the goal resulted from the team’s recent emphasis on crosses in practice.
“I was having an awful performance and I just saw the cross come in,” Sanchez said. “I got under it and I knew I had to put a head on it. We have been practicing crosses non-stop in practice and before the game and I think everything fell together.”
The goal gave State its first score of the night on the first shot on goal for either team after both failed to put anything on net in the first half.
Zuerner said the discussion during halftime led directly to the offensive improvement that saw the team put six shots on goal in the final 45 minutes.
“Definitely the first half was slow, we weren’t playing very quickly, we weren’t finding the passes we needed to,” Zuerner said. “We had a good half time speech. The coaches came in there and gave us a few pointers and told us, ‘handle it yourselves.’
“We had a few guys step up and tell us what we needed to do. We figured things out and came out with the 2-0 victory, so we are happy about it.”
After Sanchez’s goal, Widman and the Pack defense continued to keep the Terriers off the scoreboard, and Zuerner’s unassisted breakaway goal in the 89th minute sealed the deal.
Coach George Tarantini said he was pleased with his team’s performance in an important home game against a quality opponent.
“We wanted to maintain our winning attitude at home,” Tarantini said. “They’re a very tough team to play and they [were] undefeated. Everybody I think did a nice job and I thought the goals were just what we needed in the moments we needed.”
