The High Point University men's soccer team picked up its first win of the season this afternoon when it shut out Big South Conference opponent VMI, 2-0.

The Panthers (1-12-4, 1-5-1 BSC) got on the board early when Patrick Althoff set up Chris Archer for the goal in the seventh minute.  Althoff's feed came across the middle where Archer was waiting to send in the quick ball to the upper right corner of the net. The goal marked Archer's third of the season.

Freshman Dan Haywood scored the second goal with just over two minutes remaining in the contest. Going one-on-one with the VMI (7-9-1, 1-6-0 BSC) goalkeeper, Haywood connected with the back of the net to insure the Panther victory. Haywood now has six goals on the season to lead the Panthers in scoring.

"Today was a great team performance," said High Point University head coach Peter Broadley. "It was great to get our first win. We haven't played poorly in every game this season and a lot of our losses can be attributed to youthful inexperience."

The two teams matched up evenly in the shots category with 16 each, but the Panthers had more shots on goal by a margin of 10-7.

In goal for HPU was Adam Ross who had seven saves in the contest while VMI goalkeeper John Sollock had eight.

"Hopefully this will give us momentum going into our next game," Broadley said. "Maybe we can build on today's win and end the season on a positive note before going into the tournament."

High Point will conclude the regular season on Saturday when it travels to Farmville Va. to do battle with Longwood. Game time is set for 6 p.m. Next week the Panthers will host the Big South Conference tournament. Play begins on Thursday with the opening round. Game times will be announced after seeding has been decided at the conclusion of this week's Big South matches.