Richard Bland Earns 2-0 Road Shutout At Wake Tech

RALEIGH, N.C. – Freshmen Danny Torres/Bucaramanga, Colombia and Eduardo Pessoa/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil each scored goals to lead Richard Bland College to a 2-0 Region X Conference road victory at Wake Technical (N.C.) Community College on Thursday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. Sophomore Sukrija Dudic/Richmond posted the shutout while making his first collegiate start in front of the net, and freshman Finn Busse/Kiel, Germany contributed an assist for the visiting Statesmen (5-4, 3-4 Region X) against the host Eagles (2-6, 2-6 Region X). Richard Bland will return home to welcome Region X opponent USC Salkehatchie on Sunday, September 25, at Statesman Field at 1 p.m.

"The guys really pulled together a complete 90 minutes against a very determined Wake Tech team," said first-year assistant coach Nick Surkamp. "I am very proud of the way our squad looked into the face of adversity to get a team win of the highest quality. Congrats to our team defense and Suki (Sukrija Dudic) on tonight's shutout."

In a rare late-night regular season match that did not start until 9 p.m., Richard Bland led 1-0 at the intermission at Wake Tech after the first-half goal from Torres in the 33rd minute on a successful penalty-kick opportunity. It was the first collegiate goal for Torres. The Statesmen added to their advantage with another goal early in the second half when Pessoa tallied his goal in the 49th minute, assisted by Busse. It was the team-leading sixth goal of the season for Pessoa, while the first collegiate assist for Busse.

Dudic started and played the entire 90 minutes in front of the net for Richard Bland, making one save while posting his first collegiate shutout. He normally starts at the forward position, and has scored two goals this season for the Statesmen.

Richard Bland took a 14-3 advantage in shots at Wake Tech, including 6-1 in attempts on goal. The Statesmen had a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.

Richard Bland played the contest without the services of third-year head coach Eduardo de Souza and three starters, who had each received second-half red cards in the previous match at Patrick Henry Community College on Sept. 17.