Box Score
by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-The Barton College men's soccer team scored three first half goals before posting its fourth shutout in the last six games with a 3-0 Conference Carolinas victory against Pfeiffer University on Wednesday night.
Sophomore Dante De Luca scored a pair of goals between a score by junior Archer Bane as Barton improved to 6-7-1 overall and 5-4-0 in the conference. The Bulldogs can claim a spot in the eight-team Conference Carolinas Tournament in two weeks with an outside shot at hosting a home playoff game in the quarterfinals with a win in the team's last league regular season game on Saturday when Barton hosts Lees-McRae College a 7 p.m.
"The Barton boys played a complete game today and looked sharp all over the field," said Barton head coach Matt Akins. "The defense was solid and our offense moved the ball very well which created several great looks."
After Barton junior goalkeeper Vasily Yakimkin made a pair of saves in the first 15 minutes, De Luca opened up the Bulldogs scoring at the 18:12 mark when he one-timed a pass by Bane from inside the Pfeiffer box to the back of the net.
The margin grew to 2-0 in the 36th minute when Bane finished off a give-and-go series of passes with freshman Kevin Strassburger. De Luca scored the final tally in the 41st minute when he cleaned up a blocked shot taken by senior Richard Worthy with a low shot across the front of the goal and inside the far right post.
De Luca increased his league leading totals to 13 goals and 29 points with his four-point performance. Bane is the Bulldogs second leading goal scorer with six markers. Bane and Strassburger remain deadlocked for the team lead in assists as they each provided one helper.
Yakimkin finished with three saves in the first half for his sixth win of the season.
Barton outshot Pfeiffer 19-12 and had several changes to increase its lead in the second half but were unable to finish off the opportunities. De Luca rattled off six shots including four on frame but was unable to complete his second hat trick of the season. Worthy totaled five shots including one attempt from close range that he fired over the crossbar.
Pfeiffer was just inches off scoring a couple of goals with two shots that clanked off the frame. Junior Simon Leslie bounced a blast off the crossbar in the 39th minute while a sophomore DAmmy Balogun found medal in the 76th minute.
Freshman Kody Sprinkle nearly broke up the combined shutout bid by Barton with a hard shot in the 80th minute but freshman goalie Derek Collins made a great stop to preserve the clean slate. Collins finished with two saves in the second half to share the shutout with Yakimkin.
The Falcons remained winless on the season at 0-13-2 and 0-8-1.
