BOX SCORE

High Point University freshman Shawn Sloan (Geneva, Ill., Geneva) scored his first career goal to propel the Panthers to a 1-0 win over USC Upstate in a physical match on Saturday night at Vert Stadium. Sophomore goalkeeper Michael Chesler (Highland, Utah, Mountain View) pitched his third shutout of the season with two saves.

"We're excited to get a win in our home opener, and at the end of the day that's why we play the game," said HPU head coach Dustin Fonder. "It was nice to keep the 0 on the scoreboard, we've done that in three of our first five games and that will help us when we get into conference play. I'd like to see some improvement in our game management. In our execution in the box we need clean finishes and our overall possession game was unsophisticated."

Sloan scored his first goal of the season when Matt Tuttle (Winston-Salem, N.C., Reynolds) banked a pass off a USC Upstate defender to Sloan at the top of the box. Sloan put a strong shot into the top of the net to make it 1-0 at 23:34. Sloan had another great shot later in the half when he shot the ball high on net, and USC Upstate goalkeeper Patrick Regna just got his fingertips on it to deflect it high.

"We're happy for Sloan to get his first college goal, and we hope it's his first of many," said Fonder. "We rate him very highly so it was good to see him get that goal."

Just after play resumed, Upstate had one of its best scoring opportunities of the half when Isaiah Ferguson hit the crossbar. In the final minute of the first half, Spartan senior Nick Buxton hit the crossbar and Maurice Beggs shot the rebound wide.

The Panthers had several good scoring opportunities in the second half. Sloan got open in front of the net and his shot was denied by Regna's challenge. Scott Rojo (Houston, Texas, Lee) shot the rebound wide. Stephen Clowes (Cary, N.C., Green Hope) had a quality shot on goal late in the game that Regna saved, and the deflection bounced just wide of the left post.

Late in the game, Rojo created some opportunities with his footwork. From the left side, he went between two USC Upstate defenders and got past another to thread a pass in front. Fejiro Okiomah (Austin, Texas, Hendrickson-Pflugerville) headed the bouncing ball past Regna but USC Upstate's Ben Brannan swept behind to make the defensive save.

The Panthers improved to 4-2-0 with the victory while the Spartans fell to 1-4-0. HPU has two more games before beginning its Big South slate. The Panthers host Davidson on Sept. 22 and East Tennessee State on Sept. 26. High Point's first Big South game is at Gardner-Webb on Sept. 30.