GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Marc Joseph recorded his second multi-goal match of the season, and the Tusculum College men's soccer team scored three unanswered goals to notch a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Catawba College in South Atlantic Conference play on Wednesday.
Tusculum (8-3-1, 4-2 SAC) controlled the run of play for much of the match, outshooting the Catawba Indians 29-6 on the night, including a 19-2 margin in the second half. Anteneh Lemma tallied a match-high eight shots for the Pioneers, followed closely by Lucas Paulini's total of seven attempts on goal.
Joseph paced the Pioneers with his team-leading eighth and ninth goals of the season, as Andres Jarquin found the back of the net for the fifth time this year. Lemma, Paulini, Matthew McKeever, and Andra Shelton each added an assist for Tusculum in the match. Catawba's Carson Smith and Andrew Landry each tallied a goal on the night, while Mark Ketterer chipped in with an assist.
Catawba scored the match's first two goals midway through the second half against the run of play, taking a 1-0 lead on Landry's eighth goal of the season when the senior forward intercepted an errant pass back to the keeper and tapped it into the open net early in the 23rd minute. The Catawba Indians widened the margin to 2-0 in the closing moments of the 26th minute when Smith took a long cross from Ketterer at the top of the TC area, and delivered a slicing strike inside the far post for his third goal of the season.
Tusculum cut the advantage to 2-1 later in the 35th minute on Joseph's eighth tally of the season, a driven strike past the keeper from seven yards distance from Lemma and McKeever to send the match into halftime.
The Pioneers came out of the interval determined to have the final say in the match, pulling back on terms early in the second half on Jarquin's fifth goal of the season. Jarquin's goal came midway through the 50th minute after Paulini delivered a wonderful long ball to the junior forward, putting Jarquin in perfect position to send a brilliant volley over the keeper's head and into the near side of the net to square the match at 2-2.
Tusculum had numerous chances to pull ahead in the match over the next 40 minutes, with the go-ahead strike eventually coming late in the 88th minute on Joseph's second goal of the match. Joseph delivered his second match-winner in the last three contests when Shelton fed a perfect through ball into the streaking sophomore, putting the 5-10, 160-pound forward in perfect position for the finish to give TC the come-from-behind victory.
The Pioneers return to the pitch on Saturday when they travel to Banner Elk, N.C. to square off against top-ranked Lees-McRae College, who Tusculum defeated 2-0 in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region Final last season. The match is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m.
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