GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University men's soccer team picked up its third consecutive shutout victory with a 2-0 win over Newberry Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference action at Pioneer Field.
Ayuk Tambe scored for the fifth time in six matches and Ivan Andabak added a second-half insurance goal for the Pioneers (5-5-0, 3-2-0 SAC), who have earned three straight shutout victories for the first time since Oct. 8-15, 2014 against Brevard, Catawba and Lees-McRae.
Alejandro Quiriti made one save for his fifth shutout of the year, tying him for ninth place on the program single-season list. Tusculum finished the match with an 18-5 advantage in shots over the Wolves (3-7-1, 2-2-0 SAC), including 12-2 in the second half.
Neither team put a shot on goal for nearly 42 minutes, although the Pioneers had a chance in the 18th minute that Dario Ljubic sent over the crossbar from 15 yards out. Headers by the Pioneers' Roy Deutekom and the Wolves' Giacomo Salvarezza were easily collected by Quiriti for Tusculum and Brad Dixon for Newberry as the teams went to intermission scoreless.
Tusculum struck quickly in the second half, as Tambe scored for the third consecutive game at 48:30 after taking a pass from Georgios Charkoutsakis, beating the defender and going near post against Dixon for a 1-0 Pioneer lead.
Tambe nearly added his second goal four minutes later as a shot from 25 yards caromed off the top part of the crossbar, and four minutes after that he sent a shot from a sharp angle just past the far post. Oscar Rubio Jimenez had a good chance in the 60th minute, but his shot from straight on was grabbed head-high by Dixon.
While the Pioneer defense kept the Wolves from attacking, the Tusculum offense continued to seek for its second goal. Finally, with seven minutes to go the Pioneers found the insurance after Rian Marques was robbed on a great save by Dixon, who finished with five stops in the match. The rebound came to Tambe, who fed Andabak for his first goal of the season with 6:59 remaining on what would be the final shot of the night.
Both teams were called for 15 fouls and shown two yellow cards during the match, which featured hydration breaks with temperatures in the mid 80s and humid conditions. Tusculum took all four corner kicks in the match.
Tusculum will remain home to play Lenoir-Rhyne in a SAC match on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Field.
