BOX SCORE

The High Point University men's soccer team reached 10 wins for the first time in the HPU Division I era with a 3-0 win over UNC Asheville at Vert Stadium Saturday night. The Panthers are one of the first to reach 10 wins in Division I soccer this season.

“We are very pleased to get a conference win here tonight,” head coach Dustin Fonder said. “Our goal coming into the season was to get three points out of every conference game which we knew would be a challenging task. UNC Asheville is a well coached and organized team so for us to get behind them like we did showed that our pattern play was really working.”

Junior Karo Okiomah scored two goals and sophomore Shawn Sloan had two assists in the contest to lead High Point to its seventh-straight win.

The Panthers opened the game on the attack peppering UNC Asheville keeper Lassi Hurskainen from the opening whistle. HPU looked poised to take the lead twice in the first five minutes but point-blank shots by Sloan and Okiomah were each sent away by the Bulldogs keeper.

In the 12th minute, Okiomah drew a penalty kick after being taken down at the edge of the box when he appeared set to breakaway on net. Okiomah hit a hard shot to the lower right corner but Hurskainen was again up to the task, diving to make the save.

High Point eventually broke through in the 28th minute as Okiomah beat Hurskainen for his 10th goal of the season. Sloan possessed the ball just outside the penalty area and held off two defenders before freeing Okiomah with a through ball up the middle. Okiomah ran onto the ball and slotted it into the lower left corner as the Asheville keeper started to come off his line.

The Panthers found the net for a second time just four minutes later as sophomore Fejiro Okiomah got his head on a cross from Sloan to put HPU up, 2-0. Sloan got free down the right flank and hit a high cross to the far post where Fejiro Okiomah out-leaped his defender and headed it in for his fifth score of the season.

The Panthers' third and final goal came in the 52nd minute at the end of a sequence which saw HPU put up four shots in four seconds. The Panthers earned a free kick in the offensive third and Sloan lined up over the ball 25-yards away from goal. Sloan's shot hit the UNC Asheville wall, but rebounded right back to him allowing him to hit a follow-up shot on net. The ball was saved by Hurskainen and bounced out to sophomore Shane Malcolm whose shot hit a defender and caromed out of the box to Karo Okiomah who one timed it into the net from 20-yards out.

“Our offense was really clicking today,” Karo Okiomah said. “Exams are over so in practice we have really been getting at it lately. Everyone was really working well together and that made it easy for me to score.”

High Point finished the contest with 15 shots on goal, including seven by Karo Okiomah, but Hurskainen kept the game close with 11 saves in the contest.

The Panthers improve to 10-2-1 overall and a perfect 5-0-0 in the Big South. The team is also 7-0-1 in Vert Stadium. The 10 wins by HPU eclipse the team's previous high of nine wins which High Point accomplished in 1999, 2000, 2008 and 2009.

“Getting ten wins is a great milestone for our program,” Fonder said. “We feel like we have been steadily improving each of the past couple years and this year marks that improvement. We look forward to continue trying to improve on this record and our five conference wins.”

UNC Asheville falls to 3-9-1 overall and 1-4-0 in the Big South with the loss. The Bulldogs next game comes on Oct. 23 when UNC Asheville hosts VMI.

High Point will take a break from conference action this week, travelling to Durham, N.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 19, to play No. 11 Duke. The Panthers are 0-6-1 all-time against the Blue Devils.