BOX SCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
Despite playing a man down for just over 60 minutes, the High Point University men's soccer team scored two second-half goals to come from behind and defeat Radford, 2-1, in Vert Stadium on Wednesday night. Sophomores
Shawn Sloan and
Shane Malcolm each scored for HPU in the comeback.
“The team's effort was excellent as it always is but our discipline was lacking tonight,” head coach
Dustin Fonder said. “We have to get back to the training grounds and clean up a lot of things. That being said, these guys never quit, they play until the final whistle and tonight they proved that.”
After an evenly played start to the game, the Panthers went down a man in the 29th minute when senior
Scott Rojo was shown a red card after a tackle attempt in the midfield.
Radford pushed forward with the man advantage testing the High Point defense as HPU attempted to reorganize itself. The Highlanders broke through for the first score of the game in the 38th minute when Mike Handlin hit a hard shot past junior
Michael Chesler at the end of an RU counter attack. Radford's Luis Grande carried the ball into the box before dropping it off to Handlin at the left post where the midfielder one touched a shot into the far side of the net.
Down a man and a goal, Sloan pulled the Panthers level in the 61st minute with a shot from 15-yards out past the Radford keeper. Sloan received the ball in the left side of the penalty area on a cross from sophomore
Fejiro Okiomah and twice cut it back towards the center of the box before unleashing a hard shot into the net. The goal was Sloan's sixth on the season.
High Point continued to hold the ball for long stretches of possession and challenge the RU backline and in the 71st minute that pressure yielded a second goal, this time off the foot of Malcolm. An HPU cross was sent into the box by redshirt-sophomore
Ryan Bennett and kicked around before an RU defender attempted to clear it out from in front of goal. The clearance went right to the feet of Malcolm at the edge of the 18 and the sophomore calmly lofted a shot into the net for the go-ahead score and his fourth tally of the season.
“Our performance was a little flat in the first half but we got into the locker room and coach put some words in us and we believed we could come out and win,” Malcolm said. “On my goal I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. The defender cleared the ball right to my foot and just looked up and lobbed the ball over the keeper.”
With the one-goal lead in hand, the High Point defense and midfield dropped into a defensive position, limiting Radford's chances in the final third.
The Highlanders best chance of the second half came with just three minutes left in the contest when Handlin got control of a rebound of a diving save by Chesler just outside the 6-yard box. Handlin dribbled around Chesler before putting a shot on frame but the attempt was cleared off the line by junior
Will Stewart.
That chance would prove to be the last of the night for the Highlanders as time expired with HPU still up, 2-1.
Chesler, who was honored before the game for breaking the HPU Division I career record for shutouts with a clean sheet at Liberty, made five saves in the game to pick up the win.
The win was High Point's sixth in a row as the Panthers improve to 9-2-1 overall and 4-0-0 in the Big South. Radford drops to 5-4-2 overall and 3-1-0 in the Big South with the loss. The Highlanders next play Winthrop in Radford, Va., on Saturday, Oct. 16.
High Point will attempt to extend its win streak to seven in a row on Saturday, Oct. 16 when the Panthers host UNC Asheville in Vert Stadium. High Point is 12-6-1 all-time against the Bulldogs, including a 2-1 win in Asheville, N.C., last season. The match will kick-off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on WCWG.
