2008 Woodie Awards
Spartans rout Coastal Carolina
Men's soccer wins big on national television
Caitlin McCann
Issue date: 9/26/06 Section: Sports
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A scoreless tie with Georgia Southern on Wednesday marked a three-match winless streak for the Spartans. On top of that, UNCG was shutout in consecutive games for the first time in over a decade.
Friday's game was televised nationally on Fox Soccer Channel, and viewers were not disappointed.
It was a very spirited atmosphere in the soccer stadium. Almost everyone could be seen sporting blue and yellow spirit wear, as well as painted faces. Blue and yellow balloons could be seen floating against the dark background of the night sky.
Coach Alex Edge lived up to his word by having his newly formed cheer and dance teams in uniform at the game to cheer on their fellow athletes. Make no mistake about it, the Spartans were there to win and the fans made sure to support them.
During the first 11 minutes of play both teams were receiving equal time with the ball, but Coastal Carolina seemed a little disorganized and the Spartans used that to their advantage.
Senior midfielder Scott Jones turned 23 on Friday night and he shared a little bit of birthday magic with his teammates. In the 12th minute, Jones received the ball from sophomore Henning Jonasson and launched it into the back of Coastal Carolina's goal.
Jones described his goal and the events leading up to it afterwards, "We came out strong. We got a couple of shots on their goalkeeper. One of the guys headed it out so I was just following it up; it was perfect, so I just hit it in."
Unfortunately for Jones, his birthday magic was spent when he was taken down by one of the Coastal Carolina defenders. Writhing in pain, Jones pulled his body a few feet across the grass in the out-of-bounds area just to the right of the Coastal Carolina goal. Medical personnel rushed to his side where it was later determined that Jones would not be finishing up the game.
"It was disappointing to see that (injury to Jones) happen," said UNCG head coach Michael Parker. "We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed on that one."
Barefoot and ankle tightly wrapped, Jones described what occurred on the field just moments before he was taken down, "I crossed over with my foot, planted with my left foot and then the guy just came in and got me."
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