The College of Charleston men’s soccer team beat Appalachian State, 3-0, behind two goals and an assist for senior midfielder Sean de Silva at Patriots Point on Saturday evening.
CofC (5-7-0, 1-1-0 SoCon) controlled the pace of play and produced a 17-14 shot advantage and put seven shots on the target.
“Well we had a lot of chances and we capitalized on them,” said head coach Ralph Lundy. “We got a lead and the whole team committed to shutting App. State out. When they were playing us hard and creating chances in the second half, everybody defended. Everyone focused and played hard and it worked.”
CofC opened the scoring in the 15th minute when Troy Peterson (Federal Way, Wash.) kept a ball inside the touch line at the bottom-right corner of the box. Peterson sent an arching cross into the center of the box where de Silva (Port of Spain, Trinidad) headed it home from six yards away.
The Cougars insured their lead early in the second half when de Silva threaded a ball between two defenders at the top of the box to Luke Huggett (Brighton, England) who blasted it into the bottom-right corner of the net.
CofC put the match further out of reach in the 89th minute with some clever passing between de Silva and Francis Twohig (St. Simon’s Island, Ga.). De Silva entered the top of the box with the ball and left it for Twohig who touched it right back to de Silva to execute the give-and-go. De Silva took the keeper to the ground with a juke then casually chipped it into the back of the net for his team-high fourth goal of the year.
Huggett and de Silva accounted for 11 of CofC’s 17 shots on the night.
Cougar keeper Kees Heemskerk (Zaandam, Netherlands) organized his defense well and made two saves for the Cougars for his third shutout of the season.
The Cougars return to action with a midweek road contest at UNC Greensboro on Tuesday, Oct. 9. CofC then returns home to host No. 6 North Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 13.