CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a brief stint at home, Charlotte Men’s Soccer hits the road again, this time for a cross-state match-up with the Campbell Camels set to take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Buies Creek.
DATE AND LOCATION
🗓️ Tuesday, October 7
📍 Eakes Athletic Complex // Buies Creek, N.C.
📺 FloCollege
LAST TIME OUT
Charlotte is coming off a 3-1 victory over the Memphis Tigers in an American Conference match-up at home last Friday.
Charlotte looked to be aggressive on offense quickly into the match, pressuring the Memphis defense and American Conference Preseason Co-Goalkeeper of the Year, Filip Sabatti, with the Tigers earning their first save just six minutes into the game. From there on, the momentum remained fairly even, with both teams looking to inflict damage.
It was looking like it was going to be another scoreless halftime for the Niners, with both defenses playing strong, but in the 41st minute, Denis Krioutchenkov (3) found a perfect scoring opportunity off a well put-together play assisted by both Tate Asante and Grant Stewart to give the Niners a comfortable 1-0 lead heading into the half.
Both teams came out in the second half looking aggressive and clearly wanting to score. In the 61st minute, the Tigers were able to take advantage and put together a nice scoring drive for themselves when Miller Lashlee scored his third goal of the season off a misplay from Charlotte to even the game at 1-1.
It did not take long for Charlotte to respond, as only a minute later, at nearly the 63rd minute, James Nyandjo scored his first career goal off a corner from Wiktor Pucilowski to put the Niners back in front, 2-1. Charlotte then went on to make the score 3-1 late in the second half when captain Ben Fisher scored his first collegiate goal off assists from Alessandro Negri and Elias Arsvoll.
The Niners outshot the Tigers 15 to six. Charlotte had six shots on goal while Memphis only had two.
With the victory, the Niners advanced to over .500 on the season once again, and remain one of three teams in the American without a conference loss, the other two being South Florida and Florida Atlantic.
AMERICAN HONORS
Charlotte has racked up nine American Conference weekly honors thus far, including three this week.
Defender James Nyandjo earned Freshman of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week honors after scoring the game-winning goal on a set piece that allowed the Niners to remain unbeaten in conference play. The goal was the first of his collegiate career. Nyandjo was also part of a back line that only allowed the Tigers to take two shots on goal and six shots total.
Captain Ben Fisher was named honorable mention after also scoring his first collegiate goal in the 86th minute of play against Memphis to secure the 3-1 victory for Charlotte.
The list of American weekly honors thus far for the Niners are:
NOTABLE STATS AND LEADERS
Out of Charlotte’s 17 goals scored thus far, 11 have come from different players. The Niners to score this season are: Elias Arsvoll (3), Orthodoxos Orthodoxou (3), Denis Krioutchenkov (3), Natsuki Ogata (1), Tate Asante (1), Xavier Holloway (1), Andreas Evangelou (1), Robert Franke (1), Wiktor Pucilowski (1), James Nyandjo (1), and Ben Fisher (1). Orthodoxou, Asante, Holloway, Evangelou, and Pucilowski have all recorded their first collegiate goals this season, while Franke recorded his first Division I collegiate goal. Charlotte leads the American Conference in both goals (tied with FAU and FIU) and unique goal scorers.
Denis Krioutchenkov leads the team in shots with 32, 14 of which have been on goal. Krioutchenkov leads the American Conference in shots, and shots per game, averaging out to 3.56, which is also tied for 15th in the NCAA.
Elias Arsvoll leads the team in both goals (3) and assists (4) to lead the team in points with 10. Arsvoll’s seven-point performance against Queens (N.C.) on August 25 can be noted as the second highest single-game point performance in Charlotte Men’s Soccer history after a 12 point performance from all-time points leader Fernando Sosa in 1979.
On the goalkeeping side, Leonard Stritter leads the team in every category as he is the only keeper to see regular-season action thus far. Stritter has recorded 29 saves thus far, which has already surpassed last season’s total, and recorded a career high of six saves against No. 12 High Point earlier in the season.
Charlotte, as a team, leads the American Conference in shots with 132.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
Campbell comes into Tuesday’s match-up sporting a 5-2-4 overall record and a 2-0-2 conference record in the CAA. The Camels are currently on a two-game win streak with wins coming against Radford (3-0) and, most recently, College of Charleston (3-2).
Ethan Roberts leads the Camels in goals scored this season with four, while Xander Martin leads the team in assists with three. Similar to Charlotte, Campbell has seen offensive production from a variety of players, with nine players on the roster scoring goals thus far.
On the goalkeeping side, Max Leviton has seen the majority of the action, starting in nine games and recording 24 saves, including four shutouts. Leviton also leads the CAA in goals against average at .778.
SERIES HISTORY
Charlotte has historically played Campbell quite well, sporting a 17-3-2 head-to-head record against the Camels. The last meeting between the two squads occurred in Charlotte last season and saw the Niners come out on top 1-0. Charlotte also has a four-game win streak against Campbell.
UP NEXT
Following Tuesday’s match, Charlotte will continue their road stand for a Sunday night match-up, October 12, with UAB, before coming home for a critical conference game against Florida Atlantic next Friday, October 17.
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