ANDERSON, S.C. – The Catawba Men's Soccer team began their end of season road trip with a win on Saturday, heading to South Carolina and conquering the Anderson Trojans 2-1. Once again it took until the second half for things to really get going, but Catawba's excellent freshman class delivered a pair of goals in four minutes for a lead that Catawba would hold until the final whistle.
The win marks Catawba's (9-4-1) first away win this season since a November 14th win at Newberry and breaks a two game winless streak. For Anderson (4-7-3), they'll be disappointed after attempting to rally and managing to answer back with a goal but being ultimately unable to find another after that.
Catawba will be fortunate to leave Anderson with a win after being given all they could handle from the Trojans' offense, which outshot the visitors 17-8. Zak Stiffler once again delivered in net for Catawba by saving six of seven attempts on goal, while his counterpart Amos Uber produced three saves of his own.
After both teams went to halftime scoreless, Catawba was the side that came out firing in the second half, as they struck twice within four minutes to secure the lead. The first goal came courtesy of freshman wing-back Matthieu Fiadjoe, who surged down the flank and fired in a cross that took an unfortunate deflection off of a Trojan defender and past a stranded Uber in the 53rd minute.
Another freshman, Bautista Vecchi-Ramello, would continue his excellent season by nodding home the rebound in the 57th minute following a terrific save by Uber to deny Kheynne Ona-Vera from distance. Anderson pushed back searching for a response and would find one in the 64th minute from Lucas Goldberg, who was able to squeak a shot under Stiffler and past a pair of Catawba defenders after Stiffler spilled the initial cross.
That would be it for goals though, as Stiffler and the Catawba backline were able to bounce back to help Catawba secure the win in what turned out to be a pretty chippy affair; nine yellow cards were handed out, though no one saw red. Catawba will now have the opportunity to build off the win when they hit the road once again on Wednesday, October 26th for their last game of the regular season; a 5:00 PM showdown against the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears.
