ATLANTA(Aug. 25, 2006) ? The Georgia State Panthers men's soccer team (0-1) dropped their season and home opener to the College of Charleston Cougars (1-0) 2-1 Friday afternoon at Silverbacks Park in Atlanta, Ga. The loss snapped a streak of five consecutive home opener wins for the Panthers.
Box Score
The Cougars wasted no time to get on the board scoring just one minute into the match. College of Charleston midfielder Darren Toby drilled a low shot into the left corner of the goal past a diving State goalkeeper Filipe Carvahlo to give the Cougars a 1-0 advantage.
“It was disappointing to give up an early goal in the first minute,” said State head coach Kerem Daser. “It's tough to be down 1-0 after one minute.”
College of Charleston was able to add to its lead and make State pay after a yellow card was awarded to State midfielder Linus Warendh setting the Cougars up for a free kick just outside the box. The Cougars' Jeremy Gold bent a shot in from the right side, which Carvahlo was able to knock down but forward Kareem Yearwood was there for the rebound and headed the ball just over Carvahlo's outstretched hands giving the Cougars a 2-0 lead.
State battled back shortly before halftime when senior captain Alberto Villarreal scored on a penalty kick shortening the Cougar lead to 2-1. The penalty kick was set up by a foul called on Cougars' goalkeeper Corbin Waller, who took out State forward Josh Swank in the box as he attempted to flip the ball past the keeper.
State stepped up its offensive attack in the second half setting up a number of scoring opportunities, but the Cougar defense stiffened and allowed just four shots on goal in the second half. Carvahlo kept the Panthers in the match in the second half turning away 10 shots in the second stanza to record a career-high 15 saves for the match. His previous career-high was 13 saves, which he recorded twice in 2005, once against Furman and once against Old Dominion.
“Filipe had some outstanding saves in the second half,” Daser said.
State will have to rebound quickly as they hit the road on Tuesday Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. to take on Clemson, who is preseason ranked fifth in the NSCAA/adidas National Rankings.
