Liberty scored three first half goals and held on to defeat High Point 3- 1 at Liberty Soccer Field in a Big South Conference match-up.
The Flames got on the board early when Joshua Boateng ran onto a through bal l into the box and found the back of the net at the 15:05 mark for his team leading fifth goal. Chris Phillips and Douglas Nyame were credited with assists on the goal. Phillips scored a goal 18 minutes later when he fired a shot from just outside the 18-yard box. Liberty's last goal came with one second remaining in the first half. LU countered off a HPU set-piece when Justin Willoughgy received a pass from Boateng to notch his second goal of the year.
Freshman goalie Michael Chesler kept High Point in the contest making two great saves in the first half. In the 23rd minute Chesler denied a diving header from Chris Mandell. His other key save came with eight minutes remaining on another header, this time from Mike Gelatt. He ended the period with three saves.
Although the scoreboard showed a Liberty lead, the Panthers had their opportunity throughout the contest. Midway through the first half, senior Chris Shrum beat a defender down the left side and played a ball across the box, but was unable to connect with a teammate. Sophomore Scott Rojo had another shot attempt that was blocked.
After the break, a rejuvenated HPU came out and dominated the flow of play. Junior Ryan Puppolo started play from the backline and put a through ball to junior Hilaire Babou who then crossed the ball to Shrum who scored his fourth goal of the season. He is now tied with Babou for the team lead in goals and leads the team in points. High Point kept the pressure on throughout the remainder of the half. A header from sophomore Justin Pruetz was saved by Liberty goalie Paul Gilbert. Another opportunity arose when Rojo played a ball back to junior Matt Tuttle whose shot was blocked inside the box.
"As we try to instill a refuse to lose attitude, the second half was a testament to the players buying into this mentality," said head coach Dustin Fonder. "Even though we fell behind early, our guys never stopped believing that they could come back and it showed in the way we played the second half. With this kind of attitude, good things will come as we continue with the season."
In the second half, the Panthers held a 10-2 shot advantage and a 13-9 overall edge. Chesler ended the game with four total saves while mining the net. Gilbert picked up the win for Liberty and made five saves. The loss drops High point to 5-4-1 on the season and 1-1 in Big South play.
HPU has a week off before it travels to take on first place Winthrop in a key Big South match-up. The Eagles were selected as the preseason favorites to bring home the conference hardware. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m.
