Railsplitters Fall In Regional Battle With Francis Marion
October 24, 2009
HARROGATE, TN - Saturday afternoon's 2-1 regional loss to Southeast region foe Francis Marion University was especially disappointing to the Railsplitter seniors who were playing in their final regular season home match of the year.
The Railsplitters' demise Saturday began in the 40th minute of the match when FMU's Ivan Juric scored off off a corner kick to put the Patriots on top 1-0. The goal came at the 39:49 mark and LMU needed less than three minutes later to score the equalizer when junior Jimmy Vandenhurk (Walland, TN) used teammate Fernando Silveira's (Brasilia, Brazil) cross to place a head-shot past Francis Marion goalkeeper Clark Richeson.
After going into the half tied at 1-1, both teams battled each other, trading shots and possessing the ball until Francis Marion's Kyle Clinton was able to strike paydirt again for the Patriots with help from two quick passes by teammates Juan Rivas and Adrian Sikorski from directly in front of the goal.
Despite out shooting Francis Marion University in shots-on-goal throughout the second half nearly 2-1, the Patriots denied the Railsplitters the equalizer this time and slipped out of Harrogate with a big region win as both teams approach the end of their regular season schedules.
The Railsplitters fall to 9-3-1 on the year and will most likely fall out of the NSCAA Top-25 following the loss to unranked Francis Marion. The LMU men were also ranked ahead of Francis Marion University in the NSCAA Southeast Regional poll this week as the no. 3 ranked team and that situation may change as well after having lost to the no. 8 ranked Patriots of FMU.
The Railsplitters will travel to Mars Hill, North Carolina on Tuesday evening to take on Mars Hill College before closing out the regular season with arch-rival Wingate University on Saturday in Wingate, North Carolina. The winner of the match could possibly be the South Atlantic Conference regular season champion.
