Bears off to strong start to soccer season

The Mercer men’s soccer team is off to a 2-0 start to its season, including a 3-2 win over No. 24 South Carolina on Tuesday.

Kobe Perez and Will Bagrou led the Bears to the upset with each scoring a goal, and Jake Mezei scored the game-winner. The win was Mercer’s first over South Carolina in the programs’ ninth meeting.

It also was Mercer’s first victory over a ranked team since the Bears beat UAB in 2010, and it is the third ranked team Mercer has defeated during head coach Brad Ruzzo’s tenure.

“I thought we started off great in the first half, and we scored a great goal to go into halftime with a 1-0 lead,” Ruzzo said. “We came out in the first 15 minutes of the second half and got a second goal and were playing well. I think when you get up 2-0 against a nationally ranked team, it’s natural to get into a defensive shape a little bit. We dropped in too much and allowed that first goal and gave them momentum to get the second one. But I’m obviously proud of our team to come back and dig in and really stay with the game plan to fight through it and eventually put away our opportunity.”

“We have basically 10 juniors and seniors in this group, and I kind of rode those guys (Tuesday). We needed experience and leadership. As soon as we got that throw-in, you could tell we were going to get that goal.”

The Bears will be back in South Carolina this weekend for the SoCon/Big South Challenge. The Bears will play Winthrop on Friday in Spartanburg.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Bears off to strong start to soccer season."