Men's Soccer Blanks Marshall For Season's First Win, 2-0

Sunday, August 31

Davidson, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

1-1-0

Marshall

0-2-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Marshall	0	0	0
Davidson	1	1	2

Men's Soccer Blanks Marshall For Season's First Win, 2-0

8/31/2008 4:00:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Matt Harris - Assistant SID

DAVIDSON, N.C. – The Davidson Men's Soccer team, fueled by an early lead, picked up their first win of the young season with a 2-0 shutout victory over Marshall Sunday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.

For the second straight match, Davidson jumped on the board first, courtesy of a Robert O'Donnell header from just inside the six-yard box into the top half of the net. O'Donnell was set up by a cross from senior Cameron Griffin, who picked up the assist for his season's first points.

The first half of play was dominated by Davidson's ability to be both organized and energized on the attack, and come out with an aggressiveness that set the tone for the match and kept the Wildcats in control, which was reflected by the number of chances they had. Head Coach Matt Spear said that it was in part both to the team's play and the strategy they used coming into the match.

“We tried to build off Friday's loss, and give the guys a clear set of priorities and not to over complicate things,” he said. ““We wanted to have more variety in our attack, including some longer passes through and crosses from the flanks. That was fruitful because both our goals came on those types of situations.”

O'Donnell's goal was the only score on the board until the 61:24 mark in the second half, when junior Machel Turner took a long through ball from sophomore Alex Caskey, who had collected a pass from junior Clinton Smith, and broke away from the Marshall defense, beating the goalkeeper at the top of the penalty area, and tapped in an open-net goal to push the lead to 2-0. It was Turner's sixth goal in his career, with Smith recording his first career point on the assist. Caskey was also credited with the assist, his first of the season.

Junior goalkeeper Robby Goldsberry turned away six shots to register his second career shut out, giving the Wildcats their first shutout victory since they blanked Wofford on October 6, 2006. Helping keep the Thundering Herd off the board was a defense that stymied any offensive attempt that came their way, turning back all advances throughout the entire 90 minutes.

As a team, Davidson out shot Marshall by a 19-13 margin, including an 11-5 advantage in the second half, a feat that Spear attributed to the team's offseason work paying off in a regular-season matchup.

“Every game is a unique opportunity to prove ourselves and show how hard we've worked,” he said. ”I think today what was really exciting was our fitness and depth really showed themselves, and that helped pace our play in the match.”

Davidson also placed a trio of student-athletes on the adidas Classic All-Tournament team, led by both of Sunday's goal scorers, O'Donnell and Turner. Sophomore Alex Caskey joined them in garnering the All-Tournament honors.

With the win, the 'Cats improve to 1-1 on the season, and finish with at least one victory in the adidas Classic for the fifth time in the tournament's six-year existence. In the second match of the day, Charlotte clinched the tournament title with a hard-fought 5-3 win over the College of Charleston.

Davidson will now turn its sights to a big road trip up to the nation's capital when they travel to face off against Georgetown and Maryland, September 5 and 7. Kickoff for the match against Georgetown on Sept. 5 is set for 3 p.m.