SALISBURY, N.C. – The Catawba men's soccer team picked up its first postseason victory since 2021 with a 3-1 South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Quarterfinal win over Mars Hill on Saturday night at Frock Field.
The number two-seeded Catawba Indians will move on to face the third-seed Anderson Trojans at the Sportsplex in Matthews in the SAC Semifinals on Friday, November 6th at 2 p.m.
Catawba (13-1-2, 8-1-1 SAC), hosting a playoff game for the first time in a decade, electrified its home crowd just 34 seconds into the match when Gabriel Miranda raced ahead of the defense and scored the first goal off a nice feed from Breno Andreucci.
The match continued at a fast pace early, with Mars Hill (8-7-3, 4-5-1 SAC) responding with a goal just three minutes later to even the score at one apiece.
Despite the quick tempo, neither team managed to put another shot on goal in the first half, and the foes went into the break tied 1-1.
Catawba came out the aggressor early in the second half. Diogo Correia found an opening in the Lions' defense and fired a strike from just outside the box that connected with the crossbar and bounced out. The blue and white continued to apply pressure when Alex Payton delivered a superb centering pass to Hiromasa Iwai, whose shot attempt hit the left post, and the match remained even.
The Catawba Indians were able to break through in the 65th minute when Iwai found Payton, who presented a similar feed to Giovanni Benericetti, this time booting in the go-ahead goal.
The blue and white back line continued its impressive play in the second half, allowing just three shot attempts. The Lions tested goalkeeper Héctor Vara in the 87th minute with just their second shot on goal of the night, and the sophomore had no problem smothering it.
Just one minute later, Carlos Zapata sent the ball downfield to Benericetti, who quickly found Payton ahead of the defense before the midfielder chipped it over the Lions' keeper and into the net for the 10th goal of his sophomore campaign and sealed an exciting home playoff win for the program.
Additional information about the South Atlantic Conference Championship Tournament can be found at the link below:
SAC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
