GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum College men's soccer team improved to 4-0 in the South Atlantic Conference for the first time since 2004 and claimed their fifth straight win overall with a 4-0 shutout of Carson-Newman College Wednesday night at Pioneer Field.
The Pioneers (5-6-1, 4-0-0 SAC), who posted their fifth straight shutout victory for the first time since 1977, have not allowed a goal in any of their four conference matches. Overall, Tusculum has not conceded a goal in 493 minutes spanning six matches, with junior Andy Goellner between the posts for all five of the clean sheets.
"This was a great win for us, especially against a good team like Carson-Newman. We played extremely well, and we played our tempo, created chances and finished as well as we have all year," said Pioneer head coach Allen Vital, who coached the past 14 seasons at Carson-Newman before returning to his alma mater last winter. "Hopefully this is something we can improve on every game. Defensively, we were very solid and made very few mistakes."
Tusculum took advantage of its scoring opportunities, netting four goals on just nine shots against Carson-Newman (3-8-0, 2-4-0 SAC). Pontus Rosen scored in the first half and the Pioneers added three second-half tallies on goals from Roberto Pimentel and Matias Rubio along with an own goal by the Eagle defense.
The Pioneers took a 1-0 lead at 19:45 on the third goal of the season from Rosen. He gathered control of a loose ball in the Eagles' box with his back to the goal, turned and fired a blast from 15 yards that sneaked inside the far post.
Tusculum finished the first half with a 5-2 edge in shots over Carson-Newman, while the Eagles took four corner kicks to two by the Pioneers.
Early in the second half, the Pioneers extended their lead to 2-0 as a shot by Fernando Leon was knocked away by Carson-Newman goalie Michael Alley, but the Eagle defense played the ball into its own net in an attempt to clear the ball at 48:43.
The Pioneers went ahead 3-0 at 61:12 on a free kick from 25 yards away by Pimentel, his second of the season, and closed out the scoring at 77:55 as Rubio fired home a shot from close range off a headed pass from Mason Fox and a long cross by Stephen McNeill.
Goellner made five saves for the Pioneers, with his best stop coming at 51:25 as the Eagles' Robert Hill broke in one-on-one and fired from 20 yards, but Goellner came up with the save.
Carson-Newman finished with an 8-6 advantage in corner kicks and had a 12-9 edge in shots. Alley made three saves in goal for the Eagles, who played the final 24 minutes a man down after having a man sent off for a hard foul.
Tusculum will put its winning streak on the line Saturday on the road against fellow SAC unbeaten Anderson (10-2-0, 5-0-0 SAC), with kickoff set for 3 p.m.
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