TOTAL TEAM EFFORT LAUDED IN SOCCER'S 3-0 SHUTOUT OVER WAKE TECH

RALEIGH, N.C. (Oct. 16, 2015) — In playing what head coach Eduardo de Souza described as one of the finest all-around games this season, the Richard Bland College men's soccer team shutout Wake Technical Community College 3-0 in Region X action on Friday night in chilly Raleigh, and in the process earned its tenth win of the season, doubling last season's total.

The Statesmen were workmanlike against an Eagles team that pestered Richard Bland into needing a 4-3 overtime victory under stormy conditions back on Sept. 2 in Petersburg. In a late evening game that started at 8:30 p.m. instead of the scheduled 4 p.m. start, RBC was full of energy and defensive pressure, a combination that resulted in the second blanking of an opponent this season.

With the victory, Richard Bland improves to 10-4-2, 7-3-2 in Region X. Wake Tech drops to 2-10-1, 2-9-1. RBC returns home to Statesmen Field next Wednesday, Oct. 21 against Cape Fear at 4 p.m. The team will be honoring its sophomore class as part of campus-wide Homecoming festivities prior to the game. Wake Tech next hosts Spartanburg Methodist on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 10:30 a.m.

Three different players got into the scoring column for RBC, which led 1-0 at halftime after freshman forward Sukrija Dudic (Srebrenica, Bosnia Hercegovina/Hermitage) scored on an assisted goal by sophomore center Eduardo Quintanilla (San Salvador, El Salvador/Stonewall Jackson) just 9:43 into the contest. The goal was Dudic's 14th of the season.

The Statesmen launched a season-high 26 shots while limiting Wake Tech to just seven, and that shot discrepancy was bound to reap benefits. At the 53:23 mark, sophomore Godfred Baisel (Cape Coast, Ghana/Patriot) tallied his 10th goal of the season off a nifty feed from Abdurazac Abdulla (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia/T.C Williams), who took on several defenders before slipping his pass to Baisel.

Ten minutes later, at the 63:10 mark, Abdulla scored his first goal of the season in spectacular fashion, taking a cross from freshman Denzel Speed (Williamsburg, VA /Lafayette) and volleying in ball in scissor kick style into the bottom left corner of the net. "That was the greatest goal we have had all season," de Souza said.

Freshman keeper Ciro Labrada (Guanajuto, Mexico/Stonewall Jackson), who came into the game ranked seventh in NJCAA Division I in saves, had five in the contest. His counterpart from Wake Tech, Joseph Davis (ranked fifth in the country) made eight saves in the contest.

"Today, the team played at a much better level," said de Souza. "They played steady from start to finish, the type of effort we need in our next two games against Cape Fear and Louisburg. We have a good team, and today we showed it. Our sophomores really led the way today, but it was a total team effort. We played very well both offensively and defensively."