BOX SCORE

Sophomore Shawn Sloan scored two second-half goals to lead the High Point University men's soccer team to a 3-1 win over Winthrop on Wednesday night in Rock Hill, S.C. The win was the fourth in the row for the Panthers who improve to 7-2-1 overall and 2-0-0 in the Big South.

“Any time you can get a road win in conference it is great, they are hard to come by and I am pleased we were able to get the win today,” head coach Dustin Fonder said. “My hat is off to Winthrop, their energy and effort was much better than ours in the first half and we addressed that at halftime and the guys came out and responded. We brought the fight to the game in the second half.”

High Point got on the board in just the fourth minute of play when senior Scott Rojo found junior Karo Okiomah for his eighth goal of the season. Rojo got the ball off a header from redshirt-sophomore Ryan Bennett and drew two defenders to him before laying it off for Okiomah. The forward ran onto the pass and beat the keeper one-on-one with a hard shot to the far side.

The Panthers continued to control the run of play throughout the first half with several dangerous chances just missing the frame but in the 34th minute the Eagles used a counter attack to find an equalizer on a shot by Andres Pullin. Miquel Casajuana hit a long pass to Pullin who beat the defender and slotted the shot past junior Michael Chesler who came off his line.

HPU retook the lead in the first minute of the second half when Sloan lofted the ball over the keeper from about 15-yards out on the left wing to the far side. Rojo controlled the ball in the midfield and delivered it to Sloan who turned and lofted the ball up for his fourth score of the season.

Sloan scored his second goal of the period to put the Panthers up, 3-1, in the 86th minute with a hard shot from inside the goal box that took a deflection into the goal. High Point played a short corner and Sloan found sophomore Patrick Donahue who played it back to him on the right side of the box where he dribbled in on goal before letting loose with a hard shot from close range.

“This was big win since it was our first road win of the season,” Sloan said. “Beating Winthrop, who we lost to last year, was just that much more of a momentum builder for us. Now we have Liberty on Saturday and we need to come out with the same energy we had in the second half tonight.”

High Point outshot Winthrop, 15-12, in the game and had eight shot on net. Chesler made four saves in the game to limit the Eagles to just one score.

The Panthers continue their road trip on Saturday, Oct. 9, when they travel to Lynchburg, Va., to play Liberty at 12 p.m. HPU beat the Flames, 2-1, at home last season with Okiomah scoring the game winner in the 87th minute.