CCU dismisses Mercer, now has an NCAA Tournament showdown with an in-state rival

Coastal Carolina’s past record against Clemson in men’s soccer certainly won’t put a scare into the Tigers.

The Chanticleers are 2-9-2 all-time against the Upstate soccer power.

But they have played the Tigers to a draw in each of the past two meetings, are riding a 10-game unbeaten streak, and gave themselves another shot at Clemson on the biggest stage with a 1-0 win over Mercer on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the CCU Soccer Complex.

The teams will meet at 6 p.m. Sunday in Clemson for the fifth time in the past four years. Games in 2015 and 2016 ended in ties with a combined total of two goals scored.

“They’re an excellent team. [Coach] Mike Noonan has done a fantastic job up there, especially the last five years,” CCU 20-year coach Shaun Docking said. “We know a lot about them. We’re not going to be scared by them because we’ve played them every year almost up there. We’ll give it a go, give our best and see what happens.”

The Chants (13-6-1) and Tigers (12-5-1) didn’t play during the regular season, but Clemson beat CCU 3-1 in a preseason exhibition.

“We played them in preseason and they beat us but we were trying to figure our way and plugging new guys in,” said CCU senior forward and 2017 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Frantzdy Pierrot. “I think if we come and play our game, everyone works for each other, there’s not a team in this country we can’t beat.”

Pierrot, who has played for CCU for the past two years after transferring from Northeastern, scored the only goal Thursday 21 minutes into the match to give CCU an NCAA Tournament victory for the seventh consecutive year. The Chants have made the tournament eight consecutive years and 15 years overall.

“It doesn’t matter what the score is, whether it’s 10-0 or 1-0 or penalty kicks, you’re just delighted to move on,” Docking said. “It’s the NCAA Tournament. There are no easy games. It was a very tough battle tonight. We came out on the plus side. We got the first goal and hung on.”

Pierrot’s goal came off a nice assist from senior midfielder Martin Melchor, and they both have a goal and assist in CCU’s past two games.

Melchor finessed a 20-yard feed to the middle of the box and Pierrot raced in to split defenders and deliver the scoring strike and his team-leading ninth goal of the season.

“I was timing it the whole time, as soon as he got it I was looking,” Pierrot said. “I was hoping the ball went over the defender and that’s what happened and I just timed it perfectly and I was able to catch the goalie offguard.”

Coastal led Mercer 13-9 in shots, 6-4 in shots on goal and 7-2 in corner kicks. Of CCU senior keeper Braulio Linares-Ortiz’s four saves, the key stop came midway through the second half on Trenton Whitely, who one-timed a pass from 10 yards near the left post. Linares-Ortiz went to the ground to make the stop and had to lunge cover the ball up afterward.

The Chants held senior forward Will Bagrou, the leading scorer in the Southern Conference with 12 goals and 27 points, to one shot that wasn’t on goal.

Mercer (7-9-6) upset the top two seeds in the Southern Conference tournament – East Tennessee State and UNC Greensboro – in penalty kicks to reach the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.

The Bears haven’t scored an NCAA Tournament goal in four appearances and fell to 0-8 all-time vs. Coastal, though the last meeting prior to Thursday came in 2005.

Coastal had a few other sterling opportunities to score but passed up on a pair of close chances to pass, missed the net on a couple occasions from good positions and had a couple good chances stopped by senior keeper Jeremy Booth.

“We have to finish all our chances because Clemson and all these other teams are going to come at us even harder,” Pierrot said. “From now moving on things are going to get tougher and tougher so we’ve got to make sure we finish our chances up top.”

Coastal has lost in the second round in each of the past three years after reaching the third round in both 2012 and 2013, and has been knocked from the NCAA Tournament by an ACC opponent in six of the past seven years, including by Clemson in the second round in 2014.

Clemson has put together a strong run of success in Noonan’s eight seasons, winning the ACC championship in 2014, reaching the NCAA Tournament for five straight years, losing the NCAA championship game to Stanford in 2015 and reaching the NCAA quarterfinals last year.

The Tigers (12-5-1) are the No. 8 national seed and are led by Diego Campos, who led the Tigers in goals and assists and is second in the ACC in scoring. Clemson has been shut out only once all season.

The Chanticleers (13-6-1) won the Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles for the second straight year and have won six straight games and are unbeaten in their past 10 at 9-0-1.

“I believe we have the individual skill, we have the individual talent,” said junior defender Kervin Kenton Fadel of Costa Rica. “The beginning of the season it was hard to say because we were having a little bit of trouble, but halfway through the season we changed things up and now the team is working perfectly, everything is going fine, and I believe we have the individual skill enough to even make it to the final four, but obviously we have to go game by game, step by step.”

Coastal’s two victories against Clemson came in 2003 and 2007. The Tigers are 8-2-1 at home this season and haven’t played since the ACC Semifinals on Nov. 8.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time. They’ve been doing the same thing,” Docking said. “They’re very, very good. They’ll end up bringing it on us. They’ve had a 10 days rest so they’ve got plenty of time to prepare for us.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 11:13 PM with the headline "CCU dismisses Mercer, now has an NCAA Tournament showdown with an in-state rival."