SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College men's soccer team battled for a 2-1 victory over the Mercer Bears Wednesday night at Snyder Field to claim the top spot in the Southern Conference standings.
The Wofford Terriers (8-4-0, 4-1-0 SoCon) and Mercer Bears (8-5-0, 4-1-0 SoCon) are now tied atop the Southern Conference standings, with Wofford owning the tiebreaker for the top spot. The night's match marks the conference season's halfway point, with each team facing every opponent once. With the new home-and-home format, each SoCon team will face every team once more before the conference tournament begins.
The Terriers claimed the victory in dramatic fashion, scoring with just three and a half minutes to spare. Wofford's score began on a throw in from junior defender Kevin Hady. The pass went into defender Forrest Lasso, who flipped the ball to senior defender Charlie Keeley who tapped home the match-deciding goal. Keeley's goal marked his second of the season.
The two teams fought hard in the Terrier win, both making plenty of chances on offense. Wofford outshot Mercer, 21-15, with nine attempts for the Terriers on goal and four for the Bears. The two sides combined for 24 fouls, with Mercer's Ian Antley earning the only yellow card of the match.
The two squads felt one another out in the first half, with neither side earning a goal. The Terriers saw their closest chance of the first half came on the foot of junior forward Nestor Jaramillo in the 39th minute, when he hit the post on a shot from just inside the 18-yard box.
Jaramillo wouldn't be denied in the second. Just two minutes into the second half, the forward took a free kick from 23 yards out. The ball rocketed into the top left corner of the goal past Mercer's Greg Ranjitsingh to put the Terriers up, 1-0.
Mercer refused to go down without a fight. At the 64:47 mark, Carson Brooks made it level pegging. The freshman forward booted the ball into the right side of the net after a corner kick came in and he intercepted a Wofford clearance.
The mood grew tense minutes later, when a Wofford foul inside the box led to a penalty kick for Mercer. Jordan Duru shot the ball on target to the left side of the goal, but sophomore keeper Garrett Closs fully extended to grab the deciding save.
Following Keeley's score, the Terriers would play dominant defense for another three minutes to ride out the 2-1 victory. Closs earned his seventh victory of the season, while Ranjitsingh left with a loss despite a seven-save outing.
The Terriers are back in action Saturday, when they travel to Johnson City, Tennessee, to take on ETSU. The two last played on September 30th, when the Terriers earned a 4-3 victory at home. The two squads kickoff at 7 p.m.
