The NC State men’s soccer team lost 3-1 against No. 20 Seton Hall on Friday, Sept. 3 in the Wolfpack’s first game of the George Tarantini Classic.
The George Tarantini Classic honors the life and legacy of the late George Tarantini, who died in September 2019. Tarantini led the Wolfpack from 1986 to 2010, when he retired as the winningest soccer coach in school history, leading NC State to nine NCAA Tournaments, including the 1990 season where the Wolfpack won its only ACC Tournament and went all the way to the NCAA Final Four.
Prior to kickoff, Page Marsh, the NC State women’s golf head coach and wife of the late Tarantini, participated in a ceremonial first kick.
“I’m pleased that we’re able to do that with Page being his wife,” said NC State head coach George Kiefer. “I had a really good relationship with George. I have a lot of respect for what he did for the program, so to be able to do something in his name, and keep that going, I think is really important to us as a program.”
While the Wolfpack (2-1) controlled the opening minutes of the game, the Pirates (2-0-1) managed to score an opener against the run of play in the 20th minute. The Pirates’ lead didn’t last long though as senior forward Kuda Muskwe brought the Wolfpack level just three minutes later with his first goal of the season.
The 6-foot-2 forward connected with a corner from redshirt junior midfielder AJ Seals after losing his defender in the middle of the box and blasted the header downward to beat the keeper.
“It felt unbelievable,” Muskwe said. “Great ball from AJ and I was just happy to contribute to the team’s success. Senior year, I’m happy to be still involved in doing a bit to help the team.”
The Wolfpack really started to pour on the pressure after Muskwe’s goal, but Seton Hall goalkeeper Andreas Nota came up with multiple stunning saves to keep things level headed into halftime. Across the first 45, the Pack outshot the Pirates 9-5.
“At times we were good,” Kiefer said. “I thought we were unlucky not to pick up the second goal in the first half, but Seton Hall is a good team and good at what they do.”
Seton Hall came out of the break like a completely different team, outshooting the Wolfpack 10-2 in the second half and grabbing two goals in a 13 minute stretch. The Pack battled back after going down 3-1, but was unable to build any sort of comeback.
“They did a good job for about a 20 minute segment with what they’re very good at,” Kiefer said. “And in those moments, how do we figure out how to get the game back to look more like how we would like it to look? Give Seton Hall credit for that window right at the second half when they came out.”
Kiefer made a couple of changes to his lineup heading into the game with senior forward Ivy Brisma and junior defender Cam Murray entering the lineup for freshman midfielder Luke Hille and senior defender Alex Bautista, respectively.
While the defensive change was due to the competition the Pack has at that position, Hille missed the game due to a minor knock. Kiefer said after the game that if Hille had picked up the knock two days earlier, he would have been fine and they did not want to risk making the injury worse.
NC State will wrap up the Tarantini Classic on Monday, Sept. 6, taking on UCF at 7 p.m. at Dail Soccer Field. Prior to the Wolfpack’s game against UCF, Seton Hall and Virginia Tech will face off at 11 a.m.
“We come back tomorrow, it’s another day, another opportunity to get better and we train hard, we keep putting in the work and we stay together,” Muskwe said. “The main thing is staying together, because as [redshirt senior goalkeeper Leon Krapf] just said [in the huddle], ‘We’re gonna hit bumps in the road along our journey, it’s a long season. We just got to keep together.”
Sophomore forward Kuda Muskwe passes the ball to a teammate. Muskwe attempted four shots throughout the game on Friday night. NC State lost to Clemson 3-0 on Nov. 1, 2019 at Dail Soccer Field.
