Coastal Carolina Takes Home Big South Men's Soccer Title
HIGH POINT, N.C. - Coastal Carolina senior Joe Anderson turned in his first career hat trick in leading the Chanticleers to the NCAA Tournament following their 3-1 win over top-seeded High Point in the Big South Tournament championship game Sunday afternoon from Vert Stadium.
The Chanticleers took an early 1-0 lead just 5:50 into the match when Anderson and Luis Faz hooked up off a set piece. Faz sent a cross into the Panther box and Anderson fired a header past keeper Michael Chesler for this third goal of the season.
Anderson struck again in the 17th minute with an unassisted goal to put Coastal ahead 2-0. Anderson controlled a loose ball inside the Panther box that had deflected off of Chesler and sent a shot off the post and into the back of the net.
High Point (16-4-1) cut the Coastal lead in half minutes into the second half when Shawn Sloan netted a penalty kick for his eighth goal of the season.
In the 85th minute, Anderson completed the hat trick with a penalty kick of his own to become the first Coastal player since Riley Phelps in 2009 to score three goals in the same game. It was also just the second time this season High Point had allowed an opponent to score three goals.
The two penalty kicks resulted from a very physical match that featured 58 total fouls.
Coastal keeper Scott Angevine made two saves and picked up his 12th win of the season. The Kansas City, Kan., native allowed just one goal over the course of the tournament.
High Point outshot CCU in the game, 14-8, holding the Chanticleers to just two shots in the second half, but the Panthers only managed three shots on goal in the game as Coastal continually flooded the box with defenders.
The match between the two top teams in the Big South was a physical one with 58 fouls called in the game and nine yellow cards shown by the officials.
Coastal's Ross Kelly was named Big South Tournament MVP and was joined on the All-Tournament team by Joe Anderson, Scott Angevine and Alex Russell from CCU and Shawn Sloan, Fejiro Okiomah and junior Karo Okiomah (Austin, Texas/Hendrickson-Pflugerville) from High Point.
With the loss, High Point finishes the season with a 16-4-1 mark and will await word Monday, Nov. 15, on whether or not the team will receive an invite to the NCAA Tournament. Coastal improves to 12-7-2 overall with the win.
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Shaun Docking
"We beat a very good team that had a fantastic season that featured some very exciting players up front. The reason we won today was because of the play of our seniors. We had four seniors in the back today and they did a great job against High Point's offense. I am so proud of the effort our guys gave today and we are very excited about playing in the NCAA Tournament."
High Point Head Coach Dustin Fonder
"We unfortunately did not start off the way we wanted to play. We were too square and negative with our passing and that is not when we are at our best. We are best when we are playing in the other team's half and playing with tempo and pace. We knew what Coastal was going to do. They are a physical and aggressive group and they took us out of our game."
Big South All-Tournament Team
Ross Kelly, Coastal Carolina (MVP)
Joe Anderson, Coastal Carolina
Scott Angevine, Coastal Carolina
Alex Russell, Coastal Carolina
Fejiro Okiomah, High Point
Karo Okiomah, High Point
Shawn Sloan, High Point
Luis Grande, Radford
Brendan Shaffer, Radford
Romeo Kabanda, Gardner-Webb
Jon Ole Reinhardsen, Gardner-Webb
Matt Stinson, Winthrop
Brian Harding, VMI
Chris Osborne, Liberty
Lassi Hurskainen, UNC Asheville