Scoring four goals in as many minutes, South Carolina's men's soccer team dominated at Stone Stadium on Wednesday night against Wofford to earn its second win of the season.
The Gamecocks have struggled to find their rhythm and maintain a lead early on in the season behind several young players. Head coach Mark Berson was grateful his team found enough force on both sides of the ball to finish.
“First of all, it was good effort all the way around,” he said. “I thought we played well defensively, and that’s extremely important. We were able to score the other night, and we ended up not holding the lead, so it’s important for us to secure the game when we score and play well defensively and so we made a big step forward in that way.”
The first goal for the Gamecocks came off of a penalty kick from midfielder Peyton Ericson in the first half.
Four more goals came for South Carolina in four minutes. Luca Mayr scored his first goal of the season, and then Tucker Monheimer and Justin Sukow followed with goals in the second half.
“As far as the goals, we've been working hard all year,” Berson said. “We worked especially hard in the last couple of weeks on our attacking play and building on that. Tonight it was good to see the hard work pay off for the guys.”
This 5-0 victory showed development by the young team, and Berson was proud of how his team improved by paying attention to detail on the field. He said the players ultimately "deserved" this win.
“I think the big thing is you just try and work on the same basic things week in and week out and sometimes there's breakdowns, and you keep addressing the breakdowns and then when it comes together and the breakdowns are fewer and the execution is better then you start to see the reward of all the handwork and the attention to detail,” Berson said.
The Gamecocks will face No. 20 Old Dominion Sunday on the road starting at 2 p.m.