No. 15 Richard Bland Wins At Wake Tech 4-1 Clinching Regular Season

HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. -- Sophomore Dusan Stankovic/Belgrade, Serbia scored two goals to lead nationally-ranked No. 15 Richard Bland College to a 4-1 Region X men's soccer road victory at Wake Technical (N.C.) Community College on Friday afternoon in Holly Springs, North Carolina.  Freshmen Umar Mujahid/Meherrin and Ervin Ikanovic/Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina each added one goal for the visiting Statesmen (14-1, 12-1 Region X), who secured their first Region X regular season championship and school-record 14th win against the host Eagles (5-6, 5-6 Region X).  Richard Bland will return home to play nationally-ranked No. 19 Harcum (Pa.) College on Monday, October 16, at 2 p.m. at the Statesman Soccer Field.

"I am very happy for what our team accomplished today," said fourth-year head coach Eduardo de Souza.  "We did not play a good first half, but over the last 45 minutes, we changed the mentality and deserved the victory.  We know that we need to continue working on the mental aspect of the game.  Our message remains the same in that every game is a championship."

Richard Bland took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute when Stankovic scored on a header from a corner kick opportunity taken by sophomore Jamie McAvoy/Ayr, Scotland.  Wake Tech was able to score a goal in the first half, as well, and the match was tied at the intermission, 1-1.

The Statesmen, however, scored three unanswered goals in the second half for the road win.  A penalty kick goal from Stankovic in the 53rd minute made it 2-1, as it proved to be the game-winning goal and came after freshman Uziel Hernandez/The Villages, Florida was knocked down inside the box.  Mujahid added the third goal in the 86th minute on another header, this time via a long sideline throw-in from freshman Nikola Aleksic/Belgrade, Serbia.  The final goal was scored by Ikanovic in the 88th minute, courtesy of an assist played in from the left side by Hernandez.

Sophomore keeper Tomás Fonseca/Torres Vedras, Portugal started in front of the net for Richard Bland and played the entire contest with four saves.  Stankovic now has 10 goals this season, while Mujahid and Ikanovic have five goals and four goals, respectively.  Hernandez now has eight assists, while McAvoy and Aleksic have seven assists and six assists, respectively.

Richard Bland leads the all-time series between the two schools in the sport of men's soccer, 7-3, including six consecutive wins against Wake Tech.