Survive and advance: Coastal earns hard-fought win over North Florida

Simply making it to the NCAA Division I men’s soccer tournament isn’t satisfying enough for Coastal Carolina.

And despite a slew of injuries as of late, the Chanticleers continued their winning ways Thursday night in their sixth consecutive tournament apperance.

Sophomore Martin Melchor scored in the opening minutes and junior goalkeeper Fernando Pina held off North Florida the rest of the way as the No. 20 Chanticleers shut out the Ospreys 1-0 to advance to the second round.

“For us and the university as a whole, we’re trying to set the bar of not only making the NCAA tournament, but we want to try and win [when we get there],” Coastal Carolina coach Shaun Docking said. “I tell you, I was really pleased with the guys’ effort tonight. … It’s NCAA tournament time, so obviously these games are incredibly close.”

Melchor played just 14 minutes but made his presence known early as his goal came in the fifth minute, with assists courtesy of sophomores Tommy Gudmundsson and Arnar Geirsson.

“It was perfect timing,” Melchor said of the goal. “We knew if we let it drag on too long, it would be harder to score. The fact we got it early really helped us.”

Melchor, who also scored the lone goal on a header in Coastal’s first round win over Florida Gulf Coast last year, credited the Ospreys for keeping the Chanticleers on their toes and playing them close for 90 minutes.

“They were really good on the ball,” he said. “Most of their guys are really, really talented. They knew how to possess the ball and we knew we had to work hard the whole game to keep them off the scoreboard.”

Prior to Thursday, the Chanticleers were winless in their previous four contests and were held to just one goal during that span. Coastal was also coming off a loss to High Point in the first round of the Big South tournament.

Docking was just glad his team got back on track and kept it’s season alive against a pesky North Florida squad.

“We got the early goal and had some other chances in the game, but I was real pleased with how we played,” Docking said. “The attitude of the players was good, I thought we defended well and showed some really good maturity there at the end with the game management. [UNF] had chances to win it, too. Again, [it was] one of those games where the team that took chances was going to win.”

Pina recorded five saves en route to earning a clean sheet.

Meanwhile, the Chanticleers got off just one shot attempt in the second half and were outshot 14-5 in the contest.

But Coastal wasn’t at full strength, of course. Sophomore Louis Dargent, who was expected to miss the rest of the season due to an ankle injury, played 58 minutes Thursday but didn’t record any stats. The Chanticleers have also been without Bryce Follensbee, the team’s leading scorer with seven goals, since Oct. 28 when he went down with a knee injury and is expected to miss the rest of the year.

A few other Chanticleers weren’t playing at 100 percent Thursday, either.

“We do have some injuries to some key guys. I think we had some guys that we’re playing at about 50 percent tonight, which didn’t help,” Docking said. “We had other guys coming off the bench that haven’t played a lot of minutes for us this year that did well for us tonight.”

Now, the injury-laden Chanticleers turn their focus to No. 5 North Carolina as the Tar Heels host Coastal on Sunday with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.

“We’re excited to play them,” Melchor said. “We want to play the best teams out there so it’s good to play North Carolina.”

In the first year of the Chanticleers’ six-season span of making the tournament, they fell to Duke in the first round. Since then, Coastal has made it to at least the second round in five straight seasons. The Chanticleers have made it as far as the Sweet 16 (2012, 2013), but want to raise the bar even higher in the school’s 12th tournament appearance and 10th under Docking.

“We had a couple of years in the Sweet Sixteen. We made the second round last year and we’re in the second round now. So obviously the challenge now is, can we go a little bit further this year again?,” Docking said. “We’ve never been to the Elite 8 and obviously the College Cup, so that’s a goal for these guys. Six years in a row is great, but we want to get to a College Cup now and we’re pretty serious about that.”

Melchor will try to help the Chanticleers keep the ball rolling.

“It’s been great so far,” he said. “We [have improved] as a team, as a program, and it’s good to be a part of.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 11:37 PM with the headline "Survive and advance: Coastal earns hard-fought win over North Florida."