East Carolina scored two goals in the first half and had to weather a furious High Point rally in the second half before icing things with a late goal for a 3-1 win over the Panthers Friday night at Albion Millis Stadium.

Freshman Lane Miller scored his first career goal for HPU, which dropped to 1-3 on the season. East Carolina improved to 3-1-1.

The Pirates struck first in the 4th minute of play, when Brian Deutsch scored from just inside the 18-yard box off a long pass from Reed Avren, who collected assists on all three of ECU's goals.

ECU then grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 22nd minute on a Josh Foltz header off an Avren corner kick, and took that lead to halftime.

But the Panthers cut the lead in half in the 50th minute when Kirk Rudder and Luke Lemanski combined to feed Miller, who headed the ball past ECU keeper Brian Pope to pull HPU within 2-1.

The Panthers, who outshot the Pirates 14-13 (and won the shots-on-goal tally 9-6), continued to apply pressure. Pope made eight saves in net for ECU, while HPU goalie Matt Long stopped three shots.

But Matt Kowaleski put the game out of reach with a shot from the corner of the 18-yard box past Long in the 70th minute.

The physical game featured 37 fouls and four yellow cards.

HPU opens Big South play Tuesday night at home against Liberty. Kickoff at Albion Millis Stadium is set for 7:00 pm.