2009 Men's Soccer Season Review
December 02, 2009 | Men's Soccer
Boiling Springs, N.C. - The 2009 men's soccer season was one of both highs and lows and up and downs for Head Coach Tony Setzer and his squad en route to the Bulldogs 8-6-3 overall record and 4-3-1 Big South Conference record.
Gardner-Webb's highs included the retiring of the No. 16 of Jordan
Traylor and its first ever win over an ACC school in 17 tries, a
1-0 win over Clemson to kick off the 2009 season. The Bulldogs
also had wins over Jacksonville and Liberty, both of which were
only the second ever wins over those two teams in the program's
history.
The Bulldogs tallied nine more goals in 2009 than the season before
and tallied 17 more assists in the process to finishing the year
with its first winning season since 2006.
Coach Setzer had a total of six players earn Big South
All-Conference honors, as redshirt-senior Gerard Hefferon and
redshirt-freshman Jovan Ivanovich were both named First-Team
All-Conference. Junior Romeo Kabanda and redshirt-freshman Jon Ole
Reinhardsen were both named to the Second-Team, while freshman John
Sargent was named to the All-Freshman Team. Junior goalkeeper
Trent Kozman was not only named to the All-Academic Team, but he
was also named the 2009 Big South Men's Soccer Scholar Athlete of
the Year.
Some lows for the Bulldogs was a 2-0 loss to VMI in which the
Bulldogs were outshot by the Keydets 21-11 for the match and a 5-0
loss to High Point at home in late September.
Gardner-Webb kicked off the 2009 season with a huge opening week,
as the Bulldogs blanked the Clemson Tigers 1-0 in the season opener
and then picked up wins over Covenant College, 5-1, and
Jacksonville, 3-2, in the Soccer For A Cure Classic hosted by
Gardner-Webb University.
With a hot 3-0 start, the Bulldogs dropped its first match of the
season on September 11th, a 1-0 loss to IPFW at Rock Hill, S.C.,
which was the first time the Bulldogs had been shutout on the
year.
After having its next two matches rained out, the Bulldogs
responded with back-to-back shutout wins at Presbyterian and at
Radford to move to 5-1 overall and start 2-0 in Big South
Conference play.
Gardner-Webb returned home to a rude awakening as the High Point
Panthers handed the Bulldogs a 5-0 loss on September 30, its worst
loss of the season.
The Bulldogs then played Winthrop to a 2-2 double-overtime draw,
before dropping a 3-1 contest to Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C.
on October 7th.
The three match winless streak was the longest of the season for
Gardner-Webb, as it dropped the Bulldogs to 5-3-1 overall and 2-2-1
in conference play.
Gardner-Webb regrouped to pick up a 5-2 victory over Georgia
Southern at home in which five different Bulldogs scored in the
win.
Yet the Bulldogs struggled on the road for its next to matches, as
Gardner-Webb fell at VMI 2-0 and then at UNC-Greensboro 3-1 on
October 17 in the two school's first ever match up.
Coach Setzer's squad returned to conference play in style in its
next to matches, picking up a 2-1 win over Liberty on October 20th,
in which the Bulldogs became the first team to score on the Flames
in a conference match, and then defeated UNC Asheville 2-1 to
avenge last season's Big South Conference tournament loss to the
Bulldogs.
With an 8-5-1 overall record and a 4-3-1 conference record, the
Bulldogs did not finish the season out the way they had planned, as
GWU fell to Appalachian State 4-2 and played USC Upstate to a 2-2
draw to finish its regular season slate at 8-6-2 overall.
With its 4-3-1 conference record, Gardner-Webb entered the 2009 Big
South Conference Men's Soccer Championship as the No. 5 seed and
drew the No. 4 seeded Winthrop Eagles in the first round.
Due to the heavy rains for weeks prior to the start of the
conference tournament, the event was moved to Gardner-Webb
University and Greene-Harbison Field the day before the start of
the tournament.
In front of its home crowd, Gardner-Webb and Winthrop once again
went toe to toe and goal for goal, as the two teams battled to a
2-2 tie after regulation. Neither team was able to score in the
extra overtime periods, forcing the game to go to a shootout. In
the shootout, the Eagles defeated the Bulldogs 4-3 to advance to
the second round and end the Bulldogs season on its home field.
Gardner-Webb will lose its leading scorer in Hefferon, who had a
team-high 10 goals, eight assists and 28 points, and two great on
the field leaders in co-captains Jordan Gaines and Mark Webster.
Yet the future looks bright for Coach Setzer and his staff, as 10
players that scored at least one goal this season and nine
starters, including goalkeeper Trent Kozman, are set to return next
year as the Bulldogs will again be very deep as they make a run for
the 2010 Big South Conference Championship.
