Men's Soccer Returns to Alumni Stadium to Host Longwood, No. 2 North Carolina

DAVIDSON, N.C. - Davidson returns home to Alumni Stadium for the remainder of the regular season, hosting Longwood Saturday and No. 2 North Carolina Monday. Both matches are set to kick-off at 7 p.m.

COVERAGE

LAST TIME OUT: For the second time in as many meetings, Davidson and defending conference champion UNCG played to a 0-0 draw in Southern Conference men's soccer action Wednesday night at UNCG Soccer Stadium. GK Chip Sanders made four saves for Davidson to earn his sixth shutout of the season

WELL TRAVELED: Davidson just concluded a stretch of matches in which six of seven were on the road. Their lone home game since a 2-0 win over Winthrop on Sept. 14 was a 1-0 loss to Duke on Oct. 4. Davidson went 1-3 in four games on the road in between the Winthrop and Duke matches. The road trip started at No. 25 ETSU, where a deflection late gave ETSU a 3-2 win. The 'Cats won at Campbell and appeared on their way to victory at Georgia Southern, but lightning erased their 1-0 lead and forced a makeup game the next day. Davidson dropped the makeup contest and then lost at Wake Forest playing what was nearly their third game in four days. The 'Cats scored a double overtime victory at Elon last Saturday night and played to a scoreless draw at UNCG Wednesday night.

PARK THE BUS: The 'Cats are hoping the next time they need to board a bus, it will be heading to Boone, N.C. Davidson's final six regular season games are all at home, including the four remaining games on their conference schedule. If the 'Cats finish in the top half of the league standings, they will be a home team in the first round of the Southern Conference tournament. Appalachian State is hosting the SoCon semifinals and finals.

BALANCED ATTACK: Nine different players have scored Davidson's 17 goals this season, while 14 have tallied at least one point (goal or assist).

SCOUTING LONGWOOD: A member of the Atlantic Soccer Conference, Longwood is 6-6-1 this season. The Lancers have dropped conference matches to Adelphi and NJIT in their most recent outings after building a three-game winning streak with wins over Navy, Richmond and Radford. Nick Surkamp leads the team in scoring with seven goals and one assist, while Zach Crandall has five goals. GK Joel Helmick boasts a 1.19 goals against average and a .742 save percentage. This is the first-ever meeting between Davidson and Longwood.

SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA: No. 2 North Carolina (10-1-1, 3-1-1 ACC) is playing two SoCon teams in a row, hosting College of Charleston Friday before taking on the 'Cats Monday. Carolina has won seven straight matches over non-conference opponents entering the matchup with College of Charleston. Billy Schuler enters the week as the team's top scorer with 20 points, ranking 16th in the country, just ahead of teammate Enzo Martinez who owns 19 points on the season. UNC's offense is the ninth-most prolific in the nation. GK Scott Goodwin owns the 15th lowest goals against average in the country at .645. UNC is unbeaten in their last eight contests. The Tar Heels were National Semifinalists last season.

THE SERIES VS. NORTH CAROLINA: The Davidson-UNC series is one of the oldest in Wildcats men's soccer history, dating back to the 'Cats inaugural season in 1956. The two teams have not met in the regular season since 2003, as Davidson suffered a 1-0 defeat at home. The Wildcats were the first team to defeat North Carolina after their 2001 National Championship. Early in the 2002 season, the 'Cats took a 1-0 win in Chapel Hill.

UNDERCLASSMEN STRIKE: All three goals in Davidson's 3-2 win over Elon were scored by underclassmen. Sophomore Jake Keator scored the first goal, while sophomore Chris Pettiglio notched the game-winner in overtime. The second goal of the game was scored by freshman Max Riehemann, who is tied for the team lead in goals with three.

CAREER YEAR: Davidson scoring leader Brian McGue leads the team with a career-high three goals and three assists for nine points, surpassing his total of five last season. The total ranks him 10th in the Southern Conference.

GOING THE DISTANCE: Davidson has played in three overtime games this season: a 0-0 draw at Denver in the second game of the season, a 3-2 double overtime win over Elon and a 0-0 draw at UNCG. After having not one tie in 2009, Davidson had six in 2010, going 1-0-6 in seven overtime games, including two that were scoreless. The 'Cats have not lost an overtime game since 2009 (Oct. 10 at Elon, 1-2), and are 4-1-8 in overtime the past three seasons.

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS: The Davidson men's soccer team will be raising awareness for breast cancer during their Senior Night game Saturday, Oct. 29 against Appalachian State.

STATS DON'T MATTER: Davidson currently has a 5-5-2 record for an even .500 winning percentage, and is .500 in games regardless of whether they have more or less shots, or more or less corner kicks. The Wildcats are also .500 at home and on the road.

HALFTIME LEADS IMPORTANT: Davidson is 5-0-0 when leading at halftime and 0-4-2 when tied. Georgia Southern is the only team that has led Davidson at haltime, and the Eagles went on to win that game.

MOVING UP: Senior GK Chip Sanders moved into a tie for third all-time at Davidson in career shutouts with his sixth shutout of the season against UNCG, giving him 14 total. He is now tied with Jim Kelly (1983-87). Alex Deegan (1991-95) and Soren Johnson (1999-02) are the record holders with 20 career shutouts.

BLANKED: The Wildcats earned shutouts in five of their first seven games and ranked 30th in the nation entering the week with a shutout percentage of .450. The 'Cats picked up their sixth shutout of the season at UNCG on Oct. 12. Davidson did not allow a goal in the first two games of the season after opening with a 2-0 win at Air Force and following with a 0-0 draw at No. 19 Denver. The last time the Wildcats opened the season with back-to-back shutouts was in 1999.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHNG: Two freshmen have scored multiple goals for Davidson: F Gabe Rivera and MF Max Riehemann. Sophomore F Chris Pettigilo scored his first-career goal at Georgia Southern and senior D Hunter Hayes scored his first-career goal against Winthrop. Senior D Greg Macnamara scored multiple goals in a season for the first-time in his career with goals in back-to-back games against Campbell and Georgia Southern. His goal against Georgia Southern was the fourth of his career and the first that was not either a game-winning or game-tying goal.

LIGHTNING STRIKES THRICE: The opening weekend thunderstorms, which affected sporting events all across the country, impacted both the Davidson men's and women's soccer games on Sept. 2. The men's team dealt with a 90-minute delay at halftime at Air Force, while the women's team saw their kickoff get delayed an hour and 45 minutes. On Sept. 21 at Campbell, play was stopped one hour, 47 minutes due to lightning, and the 'Cats went on to win 1-0. At Georgia Southern, the game was originally scheduled to begin Sunday at 2 p.m. but multiple lightning delays ultimately forced the game to be postponed until Monday at 3 p.m. The teams managed to get 67 minutes of play in Sunday with Davidson holding a 1-0 lead on a goal by senior Garrett Bostwick, but since the game did not reach the 70-minute mark, none of the stats counted as per NCAA rules, and the game was restarted at 0-0 Monday at 3 p.m. Georgia Southern scored three times in the first half en route to a 3-2 win. A delay of 1:47 halted action with just under five minutes remaining in the Monday game, resulting in a game that lasted 3:46.

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