NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The UC Santa Cruz men's soccer team earned a 3-1 victory over the JWU Charlotte Wildcats on Thursday afternoon on the campus of Christopher Newport University in the C2C Men's Soccer Conference Quarterfinals. With the victory, the Banana Slugs advance to tomorrow's C2C Semfinal match against the No. 1 seeded Christopher Newport Captains. Notably, tomorrow's contest will be a rematch of last year's C2C Semifinal where the Captains came away with a 2-1 victory over the Banana Slugs. In today's contest, UC Santa Cruz saw goals from
Kotetsu Horike,
Drew Krawiec, and
Joaquin Greenberg in the 3-1 win, outshooting JWU Charlotte 18-13 in a chippy afternoon battle.
How It Happened
UC Santa Cruz came out ready for action as
Jackson Chandler took the game's first shot just over six minutes after the opening whistle. UCSC continued to press with Chandler's next shot in the 13th minute getting blocked before attempts from
Michael Braun and
Soren Groessl later went high.
The Wildcats finally managed to counter with their first shot in the 25th minute before having an attempt blocked in the 33rd minute and a shot saved at 34:00. The Banana Slugs controlled the rest of the half and saw a shot from
Drew Krawiec get blocked at 44:21 before
Kotetsu Horike chipped a ball high over the keeper right near the end line, floating it into the back of the net to give UCSC the 1-0 lead with 28 seconds remaining in the half.
Out of the halftime break, the two teams traded attacks before
Drew Krawiec struck the back of the net in the 60th minute to double the Slugs' lead to 2-0. UC Santa Cruz nearly scored a third in the 64th minute but
Joaquin Greenberg's attempt rang off the post. From there, tension rose as the Wildcats and Slugs increased the physicality with JWU Charlotte forcing some key saves down the stretch. The Wildcats pressured UC Santa Cruz late with a shot on goal in the 75th minute and later cut the lead to 2-1 in the 78th minute, setting up a thriller for the final 12 minutes of regulation. The Wildcats outshot UC Santa Cruz 4-0 for nearly a 10 minute stretch but a costly foul inside the 18 gave the Slugs a penalty kick opportunity in the 88th minute.
Joaquin Greenberg delivered the late insurance with the penalty kick goal as UCSC held off the Wildcats for the rest of the contest to take home the 3-1 victory.
