2012 Gardner-Webb Men's Soccer Season Review
November 27, 2012 | Men's Soccer
Boiling Springs, N.C. - With high expectations after reaching the Big South Championship match in 2011, the Gardner-Webb men's soccer team knew that the 2012 season would be one of the toughest it had ever seen and it proved to be one, as the Runnin' Bulldogs posted a 4-14-2 overall record on the year.
GWU, who posted wins over Appalachian State, VMI, UNC Asheville and Presbyterian on the season, went 3-5-2 in Big South Conference play to finish in seventh-place overall in the Big South. The three conference wins marks the fewest for a GWU team since becoming members of the Big South Conference back in 2008 and is the first time that the Runnin' Bulldogs have not had a conference record .500 or higher as members of the Big South.
The challenging 2012 season saw the Runnin' Bulldogs play a program high five nationally top-25 ranked teams throughout the year - No. 1 North Carolina, No. 20 Furman, No. 23 Dayton, No. 23 High Point and No. 10 Coastal Carolina. GWU also had seven different matches go extra time, whether that was one or two overtimes, the most that a Runnin' Bulldog team has had in a single season since playing six overtime contests back in 2006.
Redshirt-senior defender Jon Ole Reinhardsen, who earned Big South All-Conference Second-Team honors, finished his career at GWU with his fourth straight All-Conference postseason honor, while newcomer Lyssean Thomas was named to the Big South All-Freshman Team and Satoshi Tatsumi earned a spot on the Big South All-Tournament Team.
Redshirt-senior goalkeeper Scott Krotee, who posted five shutouts and 107 saves on the year, increased his career shutouts total to 11 overall, placing him in third-place overall in career shutouts in GWU's history. Krotee's 189 saves pushes him into the top-10 in GWU's career record books in career saves, while his career 1.39 goals against average sits atop the GWU record books.
Despite missing nine games to due an ankle injury, redshirt-senior forward Taylor Jordan led the Runnin' Bulldogs with three goals on the season, while only registering eight shots overall.
Eight other Runnin' Bulldog players accounted for at least one goal on the season, while nine different GWU players was credited with at least on assist on the season led by junior Marius Hammersmark's four helpers.
GWU started the season off with a road loss at No. 1 North Carolina, 4-0, only to kick-off its home slate with a 3-0 loss to then No. 20 Furman two days later.
After falling to 0-4 on the year with losses to Wofford and Georgia Southern at the Big South/SoCon Challenge in Spartanburg, S.C. in late August and early September, Gardner-Webb remained on the road for its next four contests.
On the never-ending road trip, the Runnin' Bulldogs' upset bid fell short at No. 23 Dayton, as GWU suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to the Flyers, and then turned around two days later to again fall in overtime, this time 1-0 at Cincinnati.
GWU snapped its losing streak at five matches, as the Runnin' Bulldogs opened up conference play with a scoreless draw at Longwood, before falling on the road at N.C. State 2-0 on September 25th.
Sitting at 0-8-1 and 0-0-1 in the conference, Gardner-Webb returned home to fall to Radford 6-1, the Runnin' Bulldogs' first loss to the Highlanders since joining the Big South Conference in 2008.
Gardner-Webb regrouped after the tough home loss to post three straight wins over Appalachian State, VMI and at UNC Asheville to improve to 3-9-1 overall and 2-1-1 in Big South play.
With the 3-0 start to the month of October, GWU looked to carry the momentum over to the rest of the season, only to come up just short in a 2-1 double overtime loss at No. 23 High Point, suffer a shutout loss at Clemson and then fall 1-0 at home to No. 10 Coastal Carolina over its next three matches.
Gardner-Webb would return to the road to fall at Winthrop 2-1 in double overtime and then play Liberty to a scoreless double overtime draw in Lynchburg, the Runnin' Bulldogs' seventh overtime match of the year.
Looking to assure itself a place in the Big South Conference Men's Soccer Championship Tournament, GWU picked up a much needed win over Presbyterian on Halloween Night, defeating the Blue Hose 3-0 to seal a spot in the postseason conference tournament.
With a 2-0 regular season finale loss to Campbell on Senior Day on November 3rd, the Runnin' Bulldogs received the seventh seed overall heading into the 2012 Big South Championship Tournament and drew the No. 2 seeded Radford Highlanders.
Gardner-Webb traveled up to Radford, Va. for the quarterfinals contest and after playing the Highlanders to a scoreless first 45 minutes of play, the home team posted two goals late in the second half to down the Runnin' Bulldogs 2-0 and end the season for GWU.
While it was a down year for GWU in terms of the wins and losses, the Runnin' Bulldogs saw a number of young faces record valuable minutes of playing time and experience in 2012, which will be vital as the Runnin' Bulldogs graduate starters Reinhardsen, John Sargent, Chris Davis, Jordan, as well as key contributors off the bench in Tatsumi, Jordan Day, Jaap Elekan and Eric Bowen.
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