October 25, 2006

Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Soccer Cruises Past Mars Hill, 4-0, In The First Round Of The 
Food Lion SAC Tournament 

L-R will take on Wingate in the semifinals on Friday at 3 p.m., in Jefferson City, Tenn. 

Hickory, N.C. - The No. 12 Lenoir-Rhyne College Men's Soccer Team (16-1) moved on to the semifinals of the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament after cruising to a 4-0 win over Mars Hill College (5-9-2) in the first round Wednesday afternoon at Bears Field. 

Lenoir-Rhyne came into the tournament as the second seed while Mars Hill was seeded seventh. 

L-R will now face sixth-seeded Wingate at 3 p.m., on Friday in Jefferson City, Tenn. 

The Bears, the top scoring team in NCAA Division II, received goals from three different players as well as an own goal en route to the win. 

The own goal happened to be the first of the match after a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Gary Higgins (Paisley, Scotland/St. Andrews Academy) was tipped in by a Lions player right in front of the net at the 35:06 mark. 

Higgins, though, assisted on the team's second goal when sophomore defender Shawn Brunk (Merritt Island, Fla./Merritt Island HS) headed in another one of his corner kicks in the 42nd minute.

The match remained 2-0 until the final three minutes of the match when the Bears added a pair of goals to make it a 4-0 final. 

Sophomore forward Luis Carrizosa (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen HS) scored on a deflection with the Lion goalkeeper out of position in the 88th minute and freshman forward Amar Brkic (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds HS) tallied his team-leading 12th goal of the year on a nice header cross from freshman midfielder Aaron Wheeler (Baltimore, Md./Patapsco HS) with just 28 seconds left in the match. 

Lenoir-Rhyne freshman goalkeeper Mark Jorgensen (Ringwood, Australia/Aquinas College) picked up his third shutout of the year while Patrick Browne (Asheville, N.C.) suffered the loss in goal for the Lions despite stopping five shots.

Box Score