UNC Asheville will wrap up a four game road trip on Wednesday night when it visits the Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb. The Bulldogs (6-7-2, 2-2-1) defeated Radford and VMI in the first two matches of the trip, before falling to conference-leading Winthrop on Saturday. Gardner-Webb (7-5-1, 3-3-1) is currently third in the Big South standings, and has only lost one home match this season.
Gardner-Webb is very productive on the offensive end, and has come up with several quality wins. The Runnin’ Bulldogs opened the season with a road shutout of ACC heavyweight Clemson. In conference play, Gardner-Webb has defeated Liberty, Radford, and Presbyterian, and played to a draw with Big South-leading Winthrop. Senior Gerard Hefferon ranks second in the conference in points (21), goals (8), and is third in assists (5). Fellow Londoner Romeo Kabanda is fourth in goals with five, and tied with Heffernon in assists. A third Englishman, freshman John Sargent, has also tallied five assists. The goalkeeping for the Runnin’ Bulldogs has been less impressive. Junior Trent Kozman ranks last in the conference among starting keepers with a .672 save percentage – well below the .824 mark posted by Asheville’s Lassi Hurskainen.
Asheville has bounced back from a sluggish start to go 5-3-1 over its last eight contests. The Bulldogs had notched two consecutive wins before coming up short against Winthrop. The match did see sophomore Bryan George, the leading returning scorer from last year, record his first goal of the season. Freshman Zachary Odum remains the Bulldogs’ leading scorer with eight points, but he is followed closely by sophomores Connor Holzinger (7 points) and Jake Hagedorn (6).
UNC Asheville has lost to Gardner-Webb in three of the last four seasons, including a 2-1 defeat last year at Greenwood Field in which both Hefferon and George scored goals. The match kicks off at 7pm, and will be streamed online at www.bigsouthsports.com.
Go Bulldogs!!
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