HICKORY, N.C. – The Catawba College men's soccer team fell on the road to the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears, 3-1, after surrendering three goals in a 17-minute span on Wednesday night in the final regular season game of the season.
The two teams played a defensive battle in the first half with only 11 combined shots taken. Lenoir-Rhyne put the first attempt on goal in the 18th minut with a header, but Zak Stiffler made the save. Just twenty seconds later, Catawba went on the counter attack, and Joe Bennett sent a strike on frame. His shot was stopped by the LR keeper to keep things scoreless.
A few minutes later, Stiffler was called into action during a burst of opportunities by the home team. The Bears put three shots towards the net in 15 seconds, but Stiffler made three extraordinary saves to keep LR off the board.
Lenoir-Rhyne had one more shot on goal, but Catawba had the final two before halftime. Joseph Allerton and Kheynne Ona-Vera put shots on frame, but the two teams went into the break in a 0-0 tie.
In the 61st minute, the Bears finally broke threw with a low bouncing shot from outside the box. Nine minutes later, another shot got past Stiffler to make it 2-0.
Shortly after in the 78th minute, the Bears put things out of reach with their third goal 17 minutes.
Simone Trentin was able to keep Catawba from being shutout with his second goal of the season on a free kick in the 87th minute, but the Indians fell by a final score of 3-1.
Catawba ends the regular season 9-5-2 overall and 6-4-1 in conference play. They will await their final seeding for the SAC postseason tournament once all league games end later tonight.
