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Cougars Ground the Eagles to Advance to Championship Match


(10/27/11) Clearwater Christian College defeated Toccoa Falls College 4-1 on Thursday night in front of a large crowd of Cougar supporters to advance to the NCCAA South Region Championship match. The Cougars were led by senior Drew Custer's 2 goals and senior Walter Scharf's goal and assist.

Things looked good from the outset for the Cougars as junior Seth Dempsey opened the scoring for Clearwater in the 18th minute when he intercepted a pass from the Eagle defense and calmly beat the keeper to give the Cougars the lead. The Eagles recaptured the momentum at the end of the half and capitalized on a Clearwater defensive error with 2 minutes left when Eric Bill scored for TFC to even the score at 1-1 going into the half.

Clearwater came out determined in the second half and the Cougars were rewarded only 4 minutes in as Scharf beat his defender and served a gorgeous ball into the box to Custer who headed the ball home to give the Cougars the 2-1 lead. Custer would again tally with 30 minutes left after running onto a through ball from freshman defender Ben Holmes and slotting the ball past the keeper to give Clearwater a commanding 3-1 lead. Scharf would go on to put the game out of reach with 8 minutes to go after beating his defender and blasting a rocket into the upper left corner of the net.

Following the match, Coach Whitaker said, "The boys came out determined in the 2nd half and played our best soccer of the season. We really fed off a very supportive crowd, and I thought we played well in all facets of the game. It seems like we are really growing up as a team and peaking at the right time. Hopefully we can carry that on into the championship on Saturday night."

The Cougars led 20-5 in shots with a 10-2 edge in shots on goal. The win was the 3rd win of the season for the Cougars over the Eagles. With the win, Clearwater will advance to the NCCAA South Region Championship on Saturday night at 6:15 p.m. against Point University at Glen Oaks Park.