Thursday April 10, 2008
GREENEVILLE, Tenn—The Silverbacks took another step towards the 2008 season Wednesday night, facing a scrappy Tusculum College in a closed-door scrimmage.

Mac Kandji (pictured above in last week's scrimmage versus Clemson) netted both goals for the Silverbacks in the 2-0 win.

“We're still focusing on conditioning,” said head coach Jason Smith. “Some regulars got 90 minutes in tonight, and we got another good look at some new players. We got out of the scrimmage what we wanted.”

Felipe Quintero began the match in goal for the Silverbacks and was tested twice in the match, calmly negating any danger in both instances. In front of Quintero were regulars David Hayes and Matt Bobo, the newly acquired Zach Kirby, and Martyn Lancaster. Ansu Toure, Tony McManus, Rodrigo Rios and Jason McLaughlin made up the midfield, with Kandji running up top along with trialist and local product Chris Mahaffey.

A road-weary Silverbacks club wasted little time taking the lead over the NCAA Division II club. In the fifth minute Kandji jumped on the end of a delicately played ball over the top of the Tusculum back line from Hayes. Kandji out-paced his marker and slotted the ball in past a stranded goalkeeper.

The plucky Tusculum club put a scare in the Silverbacks 12 minutes later when Kirby was forced to clear a slow-roller off the goal line. The scramble resulted after Quintero was drawn off his line to cut the angle on a Tusculum attacker taking away any serious threat on goal, leaving him only a desperate toe-poke at goal the only option.

Eleven minutes later the Silverbacks responded, doubling the score—again Kandji found himself behind the Tusculum back line, this time off a ball from Toure. Kandji accelerated past the defender and was met by a physical challenge from the goalkeeper that did manage to uproot the lanky striker but not keep the ball out of the net.

With five minutes remaining Tusculum again put pressure on Quintero, forcing him to save a long-range shot to his left.

With improving the side's conditioning still a large factor, relatively few changes were made to open the second half: Ryan McIntosh took over in goal, Greg Chevalier and Blake Camp took over duties in central midfield for McManus and Rios, and the newly acquired Jerson Monteiro—who saw his first action with the club after joining training on Monday—took over for Mahaffey.

The Silverbacks continued to control the run of play through the second half. As play developed Monteiro began to make his presence felt, pressuring defenders in to mistakes in the defensive third of the field. However, the Silverbacks were unable to benefit from his hard work. Of the numerous scoring chances the Silverbacks did have in the second half, McLaughlin came closest, crashing a 20-yard drive off the crossbar with ten minutes to play.

Home Alone—Sort Of
Mike Ambersley, who has been nursing a knee injury since the opening week of preseason remained in Atlanta Wednesday night along with Nathan Knox. Knox was left behind for precautionary reasons due to a tight hamstring. Also missing from the trip was Justin Moore. Moore was excused from the game to go on his honeymoon.

Gone But Not Forgotten
Still unavailable are Warren Ukah and Scott Buete, both of who are in the middle of MILS playoffs for their respective teams. Should both make it to the finals, they could conceivably be available for the rematch of last year's championship versus Seattle May 2.

Injury Report
Mike Ambersley (knee)—Partaking in light training. Unlikely for April 19.
Nathan Knox (hamstring)—Day to day. Probable for April 19