November 12, 1998
November 12, 1998
Sherman Walters
Staff Writer
| With much improvement, the Appalachian men’s
soccer team wrapped their season up this past weekend at Davidson College
in the Southern Conference tournament.
The 1998 men’s soccer season was a complete turnaround from the previous two seasons. This year, Kostecky led the Mountaineers to a 13-8 winning season. The 13 wins are more than the Mountaineers had in both 1996 and 1997 combined, making Kostecky the winningest first year head coach in ASU’s history. The Mountaineers had shut out Georgia Southern in the first round of the tournament only to face a strong Furman team that had been responsible for handing them their worst loss of the year only a few weeks earlier. In that match-up, Furman shut the Mountaineers out in a 6-1 victory. However, the tournament game proved to be a
more even match-up than the previous one. Appalachian struck
first, and the two teams went into halftime tied with one goal each.
Five minutes later, the Mountaineers answered back with a goal and continued to threaten Furman late in the game with a series of close shots, but Furman held on for the victory. Furman went on to lose the championship game
the next day to UNC-Greensboro, the 1998 Southern Conference champions.
The Mountaineers have faced a number of very tough opponents this season. They came up short against Carolina, but toppled other quality teams such as Kentucky, Radford, Davidson and Winthrop. “The Kentucky game was a good win for us,” said Kostecky. “And Radford and Winthrop turned out to be the best teams in the Big South conference.” The beginning of this year’s season will go in ASUs record books. The Mountaineers began the season with a 7-1 record, tying the record for the best start to a season in school history that was set by the Apps back in 1980.
|
The Mountaineers found a true home field advantage
at Kidd-Brewer Stadium this year, where their only loss came at the hands
of Georgia Southern in the last game of the season.
Revenge came only a week later, when the Mountaineers removed Georgia Southern from the conference tournament. It was also a season to be remembered for exciting finishes and individual performances. Freshman Jordy Broder scored 10 game-winning goals for the Apps and had his first collegiate hat trick against Davidson, scoring three of Appalachian’s four goals in the contest. Senior Mark Hemphill, who has led the team in scoring for the past two seasons, scored the winning goal that gave the Mountaineers their one-goal victory over nationally ranked Kentucky, and was named to the all-conference team. Robert Black, a senior backup goalie, recorded his first ever shutout against Georgia Southern in the important first round of the Southern Conference tournament. Coach Kostecky said, “We went to Georgia Southern shorthanded, and Robert was one of those that stepped up, and he shut them out.” The 1998 squad loses a number of quality players to graduation this year. Hemphill, the team’s leading scorer, as well as Eric Gibney, Robert Black, and Jeremy Marsh will be leaving the team. “Each of them have played an important role in turning the program around,” Kostecky said. Kostecky says the coaching staff is recruiting a lot of great athletes for next season, and they are adding even tougher teams to the schedule. The Mountaineers will be visiting ACC powerhouses Virginia and Clemson next season, and look for Clemson to be visiting Boone in the 2000 season. |