Box Score

Sophomore Karo Okiomah (Austin, Texas/Hendrickson-Pflugerville) picked up a second-half goal and sophomore Michael Chesler (Highland, Utah/Mountain View) earned his first clean sheet of the season as the High Point University men's soccer team opened 2009 with a 1-0 win over Elon University on Tuesday night in Elon, N.C.

"We are obviously excited to get a win in the first game of the year," said head Coach Dustin Fonder. "As a young team, this will give us confidence moving forward. That being said hats off to Elon, they are a quality side and could definitely win the Southern Conference this season. They did well to pressure us offensively and forced us to be really organized in the second half. We broke out and took our chance well. And we had a few more after that as a result of absorbing their pressure and countering as well as we could."

The Panthers got on the board in the 49th minute when freshman Fejiro Okiomah (Austin, Texas/Hendrickson-Pflugerville) fed a through ball to his brother, Karo Okiomah, on the right side. Okiomah dribbled past the final defender and rocketed a shot to the far post from about 12 yards out.

The two teams battled hard from the opening whistle but it was Elon that earned the better scoring opportunities in the first 45 with five shots on goal but High Point managed to clear the threats away including two saves by the HPU backline. Heading into halftime the two teams remained knotted at 0-0.

The Panthers broke the stalemate in the 49th minute with Karo Okiomah's first tally of the season. Okiomah is the top-returning goal scorer for the High Point after scoring five goals in 16 matches last season. The goal was his second in as many years against Elon.

"That was a great individual effort," said Fonder. He is a fantastic athlete. If we play him off the point, any ball to the outside is dangerous because he can pick it up and run at the back four. That's what he did; he ran at the last guy and beat him with pace."

With a 1-0 lead the Panther defense buckled down clearing balls out of the back third and dispossessing the Phoenix midfielders to create counter attacks.

"It was a collective effort defensively," said Fonder. "Chesler and the backline did a good job of bailing themselves out in the first half after putting themselves in bad situations. In the second half, I want to give credit to the central midfielders, they clogged everything up."

Despite playing in front of a crowd of 1439, a record crowd for a soccer game at Rudd Field, the game had the feel of a home game for High Point as three busloads of HPU students made the 45-minute trip to watch the team play.

"That was unbelievable, High Point is an extraordinary university," said Fonder. "The fact that they would travel three busloads of people over to get behind us just shows that we do things different and that made a big difference in the game."

The Panthers next travel to Harrisonburg, Va., to play in the JMU Comfort Inn Invitational. The team will play Richmond on Friday at 5 p.m. and Rider on Sunday at 12 p.m.