Spartanburg, SC (September 19, 2008) Juniors Stephan Minyono and Donald Kirkland scored the two Panther goals as the Georgia State University men's soccer team battled through double overtime to a 2-2 tie against the Furman Paladins Friday afternoon at the Wofford/Nike Men's Soccer Classic.
Minyono put the Panthers on the board in the 32nd minute, just 25 seconds after the Paladins scored the first goal of the game. Kirkland passed the ball back to Minyono, who was able to shoot it past Furman goalkeeper Josh Zimmer and into the lower left corner of the goal. Minyono, along with senior Linus Warendh, now lead the team with three goals a piece.
"It was good to see Stephan score his third goal of the season. I'm happy that we are having so many different players scoring goals this season. It shows that we are a scoring threat and that our attacking side has improved. That was definitely one of our goals this season, to improve on the attacking side," said Coach Kerem Daser.
Kirkland again managed to connect with the ball in the second half and scored with an assist from Warendh from 20 yards out in the 85th minute. That his first career goal as a Panther. He finished the game with two shots on goal, one goal, and one assist. "Donald played an excellent game today. He came off of the bench and scored an outstanding goal and had an assist as well," commented Daser.
The Panthers (3-2-1) had 14 shots on the day and five shots on goal. Senior midfielder Joe DeVito, who saw action for the first time after being sidelined with an injury since the Clemson game, and forward Dathan Knott led the team with four shots. Midfielder Ayokunle Lumpkin recorded two shots, while Warendh took one shot on goal. Georgia State out shot Furman, who finished the afternoon with 12 shots. "It was good to see the return of Co-captain Joe DeVito. He definitely makes the team better as a whole," commented Daser.
Defensively, State matched the aggression of the Paladins and maintained a solid defense in the backfield under the leadership of defenders, seniors Spenser Sumpter, Francesco Barbera, and junior Brett Cummins. Senior goalkeeper Filipe Carvalho finished with three saves.
"Today's overall effort was great and I feel better about this game than the win against Mercer last weekend. It was a very exciting game and I commend Furman. They are always one of the top programs in the Southern region; there's great tradition there. The team played good soccer tonight, but we still need to work on closing out the game. We need to work on keeping the lead and playing all the way to the very end," stated Daser.
Georgia State has Saturday off and will finish the Wofford/Nike Men's Soccer Classic on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. as they take on host Wofford.
Scores and stories will be posted at www.GeorgiaStateSports.com as soon as they are made available.
