Kick Cancer, Senior Night for Men's Soccer Saturday Night at Alumni Stadium

DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Davidson men's soccer team will honor the Class of 2012 and look to raise money in the fight against breast cancer and earn an important conference win over Appalachian State Saturday night in Alumni Stadium. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m.

COVERAGE

SERIES VS. APPALACHIAN STATE: 23-29-4

LAST MEETING: L, 0-2; at Appalachian State; Oct. 19, 2010

KICK CANCER: The Davidson men's soccer team will be raising awareness for breast cancer during their Senior Night game Saturday, Oct. 29 against Appalachian State. The inaugural Kick Cancer event will offer t-shirts for sale. T-shirts may be purchased for $15 each. Proceeds from the sale of men's soccer t-shirts will benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The inaugural Kick Cancer event was spawned by two of Davidson's tri-captains, Brian McGue and Greg Macnamara, as a show of support for fellow captain Chip Sanders, whose mother, Nicki, is currently fighting breast cancer. The Sigma Psi sorority will release pink balloons at halftime to commemorate those affected by breast cancer.

SENIOR NIGHT: Davidson will honor its seven-member Class of 2012 prior to the game: Garrett Bostwick, Hunter Hayes, Greg Macnamara, Allen Page, Chip Sanders, Dennis Shannon and Thomas Zimmerman.

ON THE BUBBLE: Appalachian State holds the fourth spot in the SoCon standings with 11 points, which means they can host a first-round conference tournament game if they can fend off the 'Cats. Davidson is in fifth place with seven points, but has one more conference game remaining against College of Charleston Tuesday. If Davidson can defeat both Appalachian State and CofC, tiebreakers will not be a factor and the 'Cats will host a first-round game Sunday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT: DAVIDSON, N.C. - Martin Ontiveros bent a free kick just under the cross bar in the 54th minute to give No. 23 Furman a 1-0 victory over Davidson in Southern Conference action Tuesday night in Alumni Stadium. Chip Sanders made nine second-half saves for Davidson.

BLUE-CHIP KEEPER: Senior GK Chip Sanders has drawn national accolades for his shutouts of No. 2 North Carolina and Wofford. Both the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and Soccer America recognized him as the nation's player of the week for the week ending Oct. 23. He was recognized as the top-performing goalkeeper in the nation by College Soccer News, as he was named to the website's “National Team of the Week” CollegeSoccer360.com recognized him as one of 12 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Primetime Performers for games Oct. 17-23. He was also named the SoCon Men's Soccer Player of the Week.

MOVING UP: Sanders is third all-time at Davidson in career shutouts with 16 after earning his career-high and SoCon-leading eighth shutout of the season against Wofford. Alex Deegan (1991-95) and Soren Johnson (1999-02) are the record holders with 20 shutouts.

PARK THE BUS: The 'Cats are playing their fifth consecutive home game, and will conclude the regular season at home Tuesday at home against College of Charleston.

RANKED IN THE SOUTH: After a three-week hiatus, Davidson returned to the NSCAA/Continental Tire South Region Rankings, earning a No. 10 ranking in the competitive region. The Wildcats have rebounded from a three-match losing streak in late-September and early-October, going undefeated in four out of their last five matches. North Carolina still leads the region after tying No. 3 Maryland Saturday. Davidson's next opponent, Furman, is ranked third in the region. SoCon member Appalachian State is seventh.

SCOUTING APPALACHIAN STATE: The Mountaineers had their 11-game unbeaten streak snapped Tuesday at home against Wofford, suffering a 1-0 defeat. The streak began in Alumni Stadium with a scoreless draw against Gardner-Webb and a 2-0 win over Detroit in the Davidson adidas Classic. The games were the first for the team after the sudden passing of head coach Shaun Pendleton. Matt Nelson is serving as the interim head coach. ASU has been shutout in its last three contests, earning scoreless draws against CofC (Oct. 18) and Furman (Oct. 22) before falling to Wofford. Goalkeeper Danny Free is fourth in the nation and tops in the conference in goals against average (0.46) and fifth in the nation and tops in the conference in save percentage (.884). Sean Dreybus leads the team in scoring with 12 points (6g, 0a).

THE SERIES: App. State has won the last three meetings. The 2006 and 2007 matches were 1-1 draws. Davidson last prevailed over the Mountaineers in 2005, 2-1 at home.

LAST MEETING: BOONE, N.C. (Oct. 19, 2010) – Nate Latigue scored twice for Appalachian State to lead the Mountaineers past Davidson, 2-0, in Southern Conference men's soccer action Tuesday night in ASU Soccer Stadium. Latigue scored for Appalachian State in the 10th minute with Sean Dreybus earning the assist, and then Latigue found a loose ball and added an unassisted tally in the 65th minute for the final margin. The Wildcats had five shots on goal, but were unable to get any of them past Mountaineer goalkeeper Drake Branson. Davidson's best chances came in the first half from senior Yannick Pilgrim, who had a one-on-one opportunity, and freshman Jake Keator who had a close-range chance.

BLANKED: The 'Cats picked up their eighth shutout of the season against Wofford. They had six shutouts all of last season, while the team record is 10 (2003). 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. Davidson has earned back-to-back shutouts on two occasions this season (Gardner-Webb and Winthrop, UNC and Wofford) but has yet to string three consecutive shutouts together. The 'Cats last accomplished that feat last season in a string of three conference games against Wofford, Furman and UNCG. The Wofford gamewas a 3-0 win, while the other two matches were scoreless draws.

BALANCED ATTACK: 10 different players have scored Davidson's 17 goals this season, while 15 have tallied at least one point (goal or assist).

UPSET OF THE YEAR: TopDrawerSoccer.com wrote: “Davidson & Goliath: Davidson, North Carolina, may not carry the same kind of athletic clout as, say, Chapel Hill, but for one night it was the center of the college soccer universe. Davidson pulled off an eye-opening 1-0 victory over No. 2 North Carolina on Monday in the upset heard round the country. The Tar Heels thoroughly controlled the game, outshooting the Wildcats 16-3, but couldn't convert any of their chances. Davidson did convert, getting a 25-yard strike from Jake Keator in the 81st minute on a shot that ensured his place in Davidson soccer lore.”

SHOCK THE NATION: Davidson earned its first win over a Top-10 team since 2009 when the Wildcats earned a convincing 4-1 win over then-No. 6 Duke at Alumni Stadium. Davidson also defeated No. 25 South Carolina earlier in 2009.

DID YOU SEE THAT : Jake Keator's game-winning goal garnered national attention as the YouTube video was embedded on several national soccer publications and was aired on ESPN2's SportsNation. It presently has nearly 16,000 views on YouTube. It is by far the most-watched video on the Davidson YouTube channel (youtube.com/davidsonathletics) as men's basketball's double overtime win over Elon in 2009 has garnered just under 4,000 views in about a year and a half. The video has a long way to go to reach the Clemson-Davidson baseball rain delay video hosted by Clemson. That video has over 714,000 views.

RECORD CROWD: An Alumni Stadium record crowd of 1,914 witnessed the win over No. 2 UNC. The previous record was 1,714, set Oct. 24, 2009 against Wofford.

WELL TRAVELED: Prior to their match against Longwood, Davidson concluded a stretch of matches in which six of seven were on the road. Davidson went 1-3 in four games on the road in between the home 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 Oct. 8 and played to a scoreless draw at UNCG.

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.

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.

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 OT 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.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results