Randolph men's soccer makes ODAC semis

Less than five minutes into the first overtime, Randolph College’s Will Wolf leaped clear of the scrum at the back-post to get his head onto Timmy Songer’s corner kick and send home the game-winning goal for the WildCats in their 2-1 win over Randolph-Macon on Saturday in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

The win sends fourth-seeded Randolph to Tuesday’s semifinals where the WildCats (14-5) will face the winner of Saturday night’s quarterfinal between Roanoke and Virginia Wesleyan College. Fifth-seeded R-MC ends its season at 7-7-2.

“It was a hard-fought match,” Randolph coach Bryan Waggoner said. “I commend my guys on finding a way to get a goal there late. We’re excited to be in the semifinals and hope to keep moving on.”

The Yellow Jackets got on the scoreboard first when Fernando Rochi squeezed a shot between a pair of WildCats defenders and to an on-rushing Mike Urbanik. Urbanik just had time to get to the ball and look up. Charging out to meet him was Randolph’s goalie Carter Smith.

Urbanik poked the ball on the first touch just slipping the ball over Smith’s left shoulder and inside the right post to make the score 1-0 in the 54th minute.

The WildCats answered less than 20 minutes later. This score also involved Wolf and a corner kick. Wolf was lurking around the back-post and headed a corner-kick all the away back across the face of the goal, where Jacob Hood headed the ball into the ground.

The ball bounced back up just outside the goal where Jacob Lusczek headed it just inside the near post to tie the match with about 15 minutes to play.

The game was very competitive throughout and both offenses had a difficult time establishing a rhythm. The glaring advantage for Randolph was in corner kicks, where it held a 9-4 edge. So it was no coincidence that the WildCats took advantage of the set pieces.

“When the playoffs come, it is very difficult to find space on the field because players play a  little harder, a little quicker and referees don’t call as much,” Waggoner said. “That’s playoff soccer. We’ve worked a lot on set pieces the last couple of weeks because we knew games can turned on set pieces a lot in the playoffs.”

Though Smith was credited with only two saves he broke countless Yellow Jackets’ forays into the penalty area.

“Randolph-Macon is a pretty direct team,” Waggoner said. “They kept lifting the ball over the top (of the WildCats’ backline) and they are pretty dangerous at it. So we told (Smith) to play a little high off his line because for his size (6-4). He is really quick so he gets to and cleans up a lot of plays other keepers wouldn’t get to.”

In other ODAC soccer action, Lynchburg College’s quarterfinal match at Washington & Lee was postponed until today at 2 p.m.

The Lynchburg women’s soccer team defeated visiting Emory & Henry in a quarterfinal match, 8-0. Angelo Bosco scored a hat-trick in her return to the field after missing last week. She suffered a concussion last Saturday against Virginia Wesleyan.

Dessi Dupuy (E.C. Glass) extended her school-record for goals scored in a season to 27. The top-seeded Hornets will play the winner of today’s quarterfinal match between Washington & Lee and Bridgewater on Wednesday.