UNC men’s soccer beats nation’s top scorer to advance in NCAA Tournament

Ashton Bennett is the kind of player that takes over soccer games.

And on Sunday as the North Carolina men’s soccer team eliminated Bennett’s Coastal Carolina team from the NCAA Tournament, UNC coach Carlos Somoano was looking for a little extra help defending him.

“I went to church last week,” Somoano said with a laugh. “There’s nothing special (that we did.) We’ve seen a lot of very good forwards this year. He’s one of them, no doubt about it.”

The junior forward from Claredon, Jamaica, is the leading scorer for the Chanticleers, who happen to boast the most prolific goal-scoring team in the nation.

Not only are his 23 goals the best on the team – that’s also the most in the country.

But Bennett came into the second-round matchup with North Carolina with 22.

With less than five minutes left in the first half, Bennett snuck in behind the UNC back four and in front of the goal. Pedro Ribeiro slid a ball from the left side of the goal over in front of Bennett where he finished it off.

“I’m a very determined striker,” Bennett said. “I think it’s all about the movements that I made … Once Pedro Ribeiro picked it up the first thing we’re supposed to do is go to cross.

“He played me the ball, it’s natural for me to finish, so that’s what I did.”

It takes more than one strike to satisfy goal scorers like Bennett, though, and after he scored the first goal of the match he kept pushing for more.

But none of his efforts would be good enough to beat keeper Scott Goodwin a second time.

“They didn’t fall in like most of the teams we play,” Bennett said. “They defended pretty well. It was a challenge for us and we tried our best to get back but unfortunately we didn’t find a goal.”

Despite Bennett’s reputation, Goodwin was never intimidated. In fact, he didn’t even know which one Bennett was before the game started.

“I don’t think I had identified him as the striker that everyone had been talking about until the first whistle blew. I wasn’t overly concerned with it,” Goodwin said.

“I am very confident in my back line. I know they’re watching him.”

Bennett assisted the goal that gave the Chanticleers the lead for the second time, but that lead lasted only 39 seconds. That’s when Kirk Urso netted an equalizer from 30 yards out that sucked most of the wind from the Chanticleers’ sails.

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