Rock Hill, S.C.----The Mars Hill College men’s soccer team defeated number two seed Wingate University 4-1 Friday afternoon in the semi-finals of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Soccer tournament at Manchester Meadows. The number six seed, Mars Hill advances to the championship match on Sunday.

Mars Hill makes its first trip to the SAC finals since the 1998 season. The Lions improve to 8-7-4 overall on the season, while Wingate falls to 12-4-1 overall on the year. The Bulldogs will wait until Sunday to learn their NCAA Division II play-off fate.

Lion sophomore forward Xavier Belles (Guayaquil, Ecuador) scored the first goal in the match on a deflection to give the Lions a 1-0 advantage at the 22:30 mark. The teams carried the 1-0 score into the locker room at the intermission.

Wingate junior midfielder Stephen Kehoe (Newry, Ireland) tied the match in the 60th minute on a deflection from a Bulldog corner kick. MHC sophomore midfielder Rury Caulfield (Glasgow, Scotland) then notched what would later prove to be the match winner at the 73:08 mark from 20 yards out on a pass from freshman defender Cody Langley (Longview, Texas).

Belles added an insurance goal in the 79th minute on a long breakaway. The final goal in the contest was due to an own goal by Wingate at the 83:29 mark.

Wingate outshot Mars Hill 25-15 and edged the Lions 11-7 in corner kicks. Alex Huckabee (Kernersville, N.C.) played the entire 90 minutes in goal for MHC and made 12 saves, tying his career high. Bulldog junior goalkeeper Joey Calandra (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) also played the entire contest in the net for the Bulldogs and made five saves.

The Lions will now meet number five seed Tusculum College in the Food Lion SAC tournament championship match on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Manchester Meadows complex. Tusculum upended top-seeded Carson-Newman 2-1 to advance to the finals.