UNCP scored twice in the first 4:17 of the second half to take a comfortable 3-1 lead, but visiting Lander rallied back with three goals in the final 27 minutes to steal a 4-3 win from the Braves Saturday evening at Varsity Grounds.
The Bearcats got goals from four different players in the victory, while also booking assists from four other players as well. Senior Rondell Honora and Andy Pullin both registered a goal and an assist to pace the UNCP attack. Goalkeeper Tom Courtney grabbed six saves for the Braves as well.
“I found it hard to find anything to say to my team after the game because I thought we fought tremendously hard tonight,” said UNCP head coach Mike Schaeffer. “We played good soccer to get a lead and then got away from what had made us successful. We managed to stretch them out, spread the ball and get ourselves in good situations to attack, and then we went away from it. A part of that was the pressure that they put us under, but another part was us getting a little bit overexcited.”
Lander needed just more than five minutes off the first half game clock to net the first goal of the contest when Ivan Stoykov found Craig Hughes in space and the junior lifted a ball over Courtney for the 1-0 lead. UNCP would respond nearly 20 minutes later, however, when Diego Castillo’s headed careened off the woodwork to the waiting feet of Pullin who hit a quick strike past Matthew Atkinson to knot the game back up. The 1-1 tie would carry into the halftime break.
The Braves used a 48th minute penalty kick from Chicho Abreu to take its first lead of the contest, and then used an Honora score 108 seconds later to grab a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 advantage, but the Bearcats knotted the score back up with two quick goals midway through the stanza – the first coming from the foot of Samy Beydoun at the 63:28 mark and the second from Aaron Brittain just more than two minutes later.
In a game marred by 38 fouls and five yellow cards, a flurry of action from both sides would highlight action for the next 22 minutes before Andy Ludewig delivered the backbreaker in the 88th minute to seal the deal for the Bearcats.
UNCP will get an 11-day hiatus from competition before traveling to Murfreesboro on October 28 to battle region rival Chowan (1-11-0) in a 3:30 p.m. contest. The Braves will wrap up regular season play three days later when they battle league foe North Georgia in Dahlonega, Ga.