HICKORY, N.C. --- Tusculum College junior Dean Hopewell buried the deciding strike in a penalty kick shootout on Tuesday night to propel the fifth-seeded Pioneers into the semifinal round of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament, avenging Tusculum's loss to fourth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne University in Saturday's regular season finale.
Lenoir-Rhyne (8-6-4) controlled the run of play for much of the match, outshooting the Pioneers (8-6-2) 28-14 on the night, including a 10-3 margin in the first half. Tusculum's Lance Moore made a career-high 13 saves in the match while L-R's Francisco Banuelos stopped five attempts on frame for the Bears.
The two sides played to a scoreless draw through the first 45 minutes despite numerous chances on both ends of the pitch.
Lenoir-Rhyne broke the scoreless draw early in the 52nd minute when Brendan Howard threaded a through ball into a streaking Oriol Cortes, leaving the midfielder in perfect position to notch the Bears' first goal of the match from 15 yards distance. Tusculum's Anteneh Lemma brought the Pioneers back on terms late in the 67th minute, deflecting a ball past the Bears' keeper from 20 yard distance to even the match at 1-1.
Neither side could find the back of the net in extra time, forcing a penalty kick shootout. Lenoir-Rhyne took a 1-0 advantage in the shootout on the first set of attempts before Lemma converted TC's second attempt for the first of three consecutive conversions for the Pioneers to even the shootout at 1-1. Lenoir-Rhyne converted its next two attempts to even the shootout at 3-3 heading into the final set of attempts.
Both teams' fifth and sixth kickers failed to convert their attempts, before Hopewell took on the role of hero for the Pioneers in the seventh set of penalty kicks, burying a driven strike into the back of net. Hopewell then passed the hero cap onto Moore, who came up with a big save on L-R's final attempt to propel Tusculum through to the semifinal round of the conference tournament.
Tusculum returns to the pitch on Friday when the Pioneers travel to Rock Hill, S.C. for the final two rounds of the SAC Tournament, which is being held at the Manchester Meadows Soccer Complex. The Pioneers will square off against No. 15 Carson-Newman College in a rematch of their regular season meeting, which the Eagles won by a 3-1 score at Pioneer Field. The match is scheduled for 3 p.m.
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