Mercer University
East Tenn. St.
Andersson Leads Mercer to Huge 1-0 Win over ETSU on Senior Night
10/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
MACON, Ga. –On a night when the Mercer men's soccer team honored its three seniors, it was freshman Carl-Oscar Andersson who came through with a clutch goal to give the Bears a huge 1-0 win over East Tennessee State on Saturday evening at Bear Field.
With the win, Mercer (7-6-2, 2-3-1 A-Sun) moves into a tie with ETSU (8-5-2, 2-4-1 A-Sun) for seventh in the Atlantic Sun Conference standings. The difference is the Bears have two conference matches still to go next week, where as the four teams the Orange and Black are bunched with in the league (ETSU, USC Upstate, Lipscomb and Belmont) all only have one remaining game apiece.
For the first 70 minutes or so of the match, chances were hard to come by as both squads were playing standout defense from sideline to sideline.
Everything changed, however, in the 79th minute when junior Joey Heavner served in a ball that redshirt junior Matt Brazer touched back to Andersson. The Falkenberg, Sweden native calmly collected Brazer's pass and struck a shot past ETSU goalkeeper Ryan Coulter to give Mercer a 1-0 lead.
The Buccaneers tried desperately to get a tying goal, pushing people forward late and it almost paid off. Junior Alesi Osorio collected a pass just outside the Bears 18-yard box and fired in a shot, but freshman Greg Ranjitsingh made a diving save to his left to preserve the Mercer victory.
Ranjitsingh recorded four saves in the win for his third-straight shutout, while Coulter made two saves in a losing effort.
Mercer returns to action next week, when it travels to Nashville to take on Lipscomb on October 27. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
