HARROGATE, Tenn. — A penalty kick goal from Ronan O’Mahony early in the second half held up as the winner for Lincoln Memorial University in a 2-1 victory over Tusculum University in South Atlantic Conference men’s soccer Wednesday night.
The Railsplitters (4-2-2, 1-2-1 SAC) outshot the Pioneers (0-5-1, 0-2-1 SAC) by a 15-5 margin after allowing a goal to Tusculum’s Clarenns Sainrimat in the ninth minute. Gian-Carlo Kama scored the tying goal in the 35th minute, with O’Mahony netting the winner in the 56th minute. The Pioneers had a chance to tie the match with just under eight minutes left, but a penalty kick from Mo Bouta went off the goalpost.
Tusculum opened the scoring just 8:48 into the first half as a long pass downfield was collected behind the defense by Sainrimat, who deked around LMU keeper Daniel Benedek Miklosi at the top of the 18 and fired a shot from an angle into the goal for his second of the season.
Lincoln Memorial scored the tying goal at 34:40 as Kama took a long pass from Steven Stone at 20 yards, shrugged off the defense and poked a shot to the far post past Tusculum keeper Noe Delmotte.
The Railsplitters went up 2-1 at 55:16 as Davit Chinchaladze was taken down in the box, leading to a penalty kick from O’Mahony that he converted for his third goal of the season.
Delmotte kept the margin at one in the 66th minute as he punched a shot from Guilherme Galvao off the crossbar and out of play. Two minutes later, Delmotte faced a one-on-one against Tajay Grant and made a kick save for his third stop of the match.
Tusculum earned its penalty with 15:26 left when Sainrimat was tackled hard in the box by Ivan Gomez. Bouta was tapped to take the kick and guessed opposite the dive of Miklosi, but his shot rang hard off the inside of the post and ricocheted all the way over the opposite sideline. Bouta would have another chance from 25 yards with 7:51 remaining, but Benedek was able to make the catch head-high.
Both Delmotte and Miklosi finished with three saves in the match, while Lincoln Memorial had a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks. The Railsplitters were flagged eight times for offsides, and whistled for 16 fouls to 13 for the Pioneers.
Tusculum was scheduled to travel to Mars Hill for a match on Saturday, Oct. 5, but due to the cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene the contest has been postponed to a future date.
