After dropping its first preseason outing 1-0 at Davidson, the men’s soccer team rebounded with a 3-2 home victory over the High Point Panthers in an exhibition match Thursday night. It is the last contest State will contend in until heading up to Durham next weekend to participate in the Duke/Nike Challenge.
The Wolfpack is attempting to continue last season’s momentum despite losing seven starters from a year ago. Coming off of a campaign in which George Tarantini’s club produced 37 goals, an NCAA birth, and a No. 23 ranking in the final national polls, expectations for the 15 incoming freshmen are that they need to make an impact early and often during the 2010 season.
The scoring started just 4:11 into the first half when freshman midfielder Mamadou Kansaye took a feed from forward Craig Sutherland and slid it into the left part of the net. The Baltimore, MD native said he was pleased with his performance, which also included three shots on the evening.
“Craig obviously had a great game, made a great run, and I ended up on the end of it,” Kansaye said. “I have to be my best everyday. I can’t slack off for one minute, otherwise I’m going to lose my spot”.
After opening with Sacramento State and No. 20 Louisville in Durham, State will come back to Dail Soccer Stadium with hopes of upsetting UNC in front of its home crowd.
“Our coaches have us ready. We’ll be ready for them,” Kansaye said.
While Kansaye was the only freshman who scored out of those competing for starting jobs, it was Sutherland who contributed the most towards the victory. The junior transfer from Midwestern State knotted a pair of second half goals on top of his assist earlier in the match.
“It’s the same feeling, it’s always good to score goals in training, games, exhibition games, Cup finals,” Sutherland said. “It’s all the same to me. I think it is for every striker”
As far as working with the freshmen, Sutherland said their development is still very much a work in progress.
“It’s interesting, but they’re really a bunch of good guys,” Sutherland said. “It’s different from high school, they have to get used to the college game. A bunch of them played well tonight.”
State only allowed two shots in the first half and limited High Point’s opportunities to get on the board until Karo Okiomah and Justin Pruetz broke through for the Panthers.
But for longtime Wolfpack coach George Tarantini, their second half performance left some major question marks on the table.
“We have to get organized, be ready to play,” Tarantini said. “I thought we accomplished this for 45 minutes, (it was) a good effort. The second 45 minutes, except for the goals we scored, I think we need to be more prepared, but with time and experience we will accomplish that.”
Although the exhibition games were significant chances for the incoming freshmen, Tarantini said inexperience wasn’t the main concern in facing difficult opponents the first several weeks of the season.
“This is the ACC,” Tarantini said. “There’s no freshman, sophomores, or seniors. You have to go there and compete and we will try and be ready to play.”
The men’s soccer team won’t play again until next Friday evening against the Hornets of Sacramento State. The start time is scheduled for 5 p.m. from Durham, NC.
