GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College men's soccer team opened South Atlantic Conference play on a winning note with a 2-0 shutout of Brevard College Wednesday night at Pioneer Field.
Stephen McNeill and Pontus Rosen scored for the Pioneers (1-6-1, 1-0-0 SAC) and Andy Goellner made two saves for the clean sheet against the Tornados (0-8-1, 0-3-0 SAC), who played a man down for the final 24 minutes after Alejandro Rivillas received his second yellow card and was sent off.
"It's good that we got the first win. We did an excellent job of controlling the game, keeping the pressure on them and not conceding a goal. It was a well-deserved win for us," said Tusculum head coach Allen Vital, who earned his first victory at his alma mater. "Brevard had some fight in them, but in the end we did a good job managing the game."
McNeill gave Tusculum a 1-0 lead at 17:27 off a defensive turnover, scoring his team-high fourth goal of the season. The Pioneers carried the 1-0 lead into halftime, outshooting the Tornados 9-3 along the way.
The Pioneers added an insurance goal at 63:25 when Rosen collected a perfect through ball from Kjetil Paulsen and eluded Brevard keeper Pauli Jussila to net his first goal of the season.
Tusculum nearly took a 3-0 lead at 66:26 when Rivillas was shown his second yellow card after handling the ball in the Brevard box. Drayson Davenport stepped up to take the penalty, but guided the shot just wide of the left post.
Brevard found some bad luck in the final 15 minutes, hitting the crossbar four times in a span of six minutes. Patrick Urmson and Daniel Zambrano found the frame on back-to-back chances off a Tornados corner with just under 12 minutes to go.
The Pioneers finished with a 13-10 shot advantage over the Tornados, who were called for 18 fouls to 12 by Tusculum. Brevard finished with a 6-3 edge in corner kicks, and Jussila tallied five saves in goal.
Tusculum will continue its lengthy homestand on Saturday when Newberry visits Pioneer Field for a 4 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.
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