NEWBERRY, S.C. – The Catawba College men's soccer team enters the final stretch of the regular season with a South Atlantic Conference road tilt against the Newberry Wolves on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Last Time Out
- Catawba dropped its final home match to Mars Hill last weekend in a narrow 2-1 defeat
- Joe Bennett found paydirt on a penalty kick in the 54th minute for the Catawba Indians' lone tally
- The blue and white fired off 19 shots led by Bennett's six and Salano Birch's five, but only four were directed on target
- MHU's Peter Plougmand, the SAC's top goal-scorer, added to his resume with a brace to reach 18 goals on the year
Statistical Standings
- Bautista Vecchi-Ramello maintains his position atop team goal standings at seven, chipping in two assists for a 16-point sophomore campaign
- Sebastia Cerda-Tous has bagged a trio of goals on a team-high 17 shots on net, scoring the deciding PK in the victory over Anderson after his season-opening brace against Montevallo
- First-year Catawba Indians Garrett Alban, Mate Kenyeres, and Tino Lira have netted two goals apiece
- Kenny Hassler leads the assist category with three as one of four Catawba players with multiple dimes
- Graduate student Zak Stiffler has saved 26 shots in 13 appearances this fall, posting a goals-against average of 1.43 and a .605 save percentage
Still Hunting to Host
- Catawba has a chance to hosting the quarterfinal round of the SAC Tournament
- The blue and white are tied with Lenoir-Rhyne at the No. 6 spot with 12 points in league standings while Anderson (15) and Lincoln Memorial (14) fill the fourth and fifth places
- If Catawba wins its last two matches, and both Anderson and LMU lose at least once, Catawba takes the fourth seed; this is one of a few scenarios that gets a postseason match to Frock Field
All-Time Series
- The Catawba Indians have gotten the best of Newberry in all-time history, going 21-8-3 with a 106-44 combined score
- Catawba is 9-4-1 as the visitor, but the Wolves have taken two of the previous three meetings on home turf
- Last season's matchup at Frock Field was each program's SAC opener that ended in a 3-3 stalemate
- Catawba tangled with Newberry in the penultimate regular season contest in 2021 as the blue and white came away with a 3-2 overtime triumph
Scouting the Wolves
- Newberry enters the contest with a 4-7-1 overall record including a 3-5-1 clip in SAC action
- The Wolves boast two strong conference victories, taking down both Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate in 1-0 fashion
- However, Newberry has gotten pummeled in its losses as reflected by a 8-27 goal differential against conference foes
- Leading scorer Henok Awoke has found the back of the net five times with one assist while Harry McDonnell is coming off a brace against Emory & Henry that upped his season total to four goals
- Shouldering every minute between the posts, Jacob Cotton tops the conference with 55 saves and has logged four shutouts
Follow Along
The match will be broadcast on FloSports ($) with live stats on newberrywolves.com.
