Men's soccer team stop 7-game losing streak to Tusculum

Steven Grandy
Sports Editor

By 9:30 that night, the only number that mattered was one.
As in, a one match winning streak.
The Bulldogs scored two goals in seven minutes early in the second half and played tight defense the rest of the way to defeat Tusculum 2-0 to improve to 5-1-0 on the season and 1-0 in South Atlantic Conference play. The win was Wingate’s fifth in a row and the first time they had defeated the Pioneers since 2003.
“It feels really satisfying to finally beat them after several years of coming up empty handed” said goalkeeper Joey Calandra, who made 5 saves to pick up his fifth win of the season and the ninth shutout of his career. “We treated this match just like it was any other match, but there was definitely some extra motivation for us. Since it was a conference game and we have struggled in the past against Tusculum, we knew that the only acceptable outcome would be a win.”
After a scoreless first half, midfielder Luke Mulholland scored his second goal of the season, beating Pioneer goalkeeper Lance Moore one –on- one 8:09 into the second half. Fellow midfielder Ruy Andrade picked up his first assist of the season on Mulholland’s goal.
“Whenever your team manages to go up 1-0 early in the first half it is a morality booster, but when the captain is the one who scores the goal, it inspired us to say to ourselves, ‘Alright, we can do this’’ said Calandra. “The goal really got us going because I think for the first 15 or 20 minutes we were apprehensive because of who we were playing.”
Seven minutes and fifty four seconds later, forward Paulo Brunetto added his fourth goal of the season on a rebound. Wingate would hold onto the lead for the rest of the match while outshooting Tusculum 20-9.
The Bulldogs hosted Catawba on Wednesday and will travel to play Newberry on Saturday. Calandra believes that a lot of confidence will be gained from the victory over the Pioneers. “It (the victory) tells us that if we come to play it will take a good team to beat us.”