BOX SCORE
The High Point University men's soccer team scored three first-half goals and coasted to a 4-0 win over Gardner-Webb in the team's first conference game on Saturday night at Vert Stadium. Senior
Scott Rojo was involved in all four goals, scoring the first and assisting on the other three.
“I thought this was a total team performance tonight,” head coach
Dustin Fonder said. “We had a full week to get ready for this game and the preparation and training were excellent. I was very pleased with the performance of the offense tonight. We have a team that can score goals but have been just a half step off. Tonight was the byproduct of our training which carried over into the match.”
HPU took control of the match from the opening whistle as Rojo put the Panthers on the board in just the third minute of play. Sophomore
Shawn Sloan received a throughball down the right side and streaked into the box, drawing two defenders to him before laying of a perfect cross to Rojo who ran onto it and slotted it into the empty net.
Sloan would get on the score sheet himself in the 25th minute with a tally from 30-yards out. The Panthers earned a free kick about 10-yards outside the area and both Sloan and Rojo lined up over the ball. Rojo tapped the ball to Sloan who hit a bender into the top left corner of the goal.
High Point continued to apply the pressure and just three minutes later Sloan again found the back of the net with a score in the 28th minute. Again it was Rojo and Sloan combining as Rojo sent the ball from the out to the left side to the feet of Sloan who was in mid stride. Sloan carried the ball into the box from and rocketed a shot past the keeper to the far-side netting.
“Yesterday in practice we worked on free kicks and I hit one just like the one today in the game so it was a little déjà vu out there,” Sloan said. On the second goal, Scott and I read the play and saw that there were two guys in the wall and he found me on the outside. I just put it back across towards net hoping that if it didn't go in someone else would be there to hit it home.”
The Panthers dominated the first half of play, at one point outshooting GWU by a margin of 12-2 with six of those 12 on frame.
HPU's final score came in the 67th minute when junior
Karo Okiomah scored on a counter to push the margin to 4-0. Rojo led the break for HPU, taking a pass from the back at midfield and beating his defender one-on-one. Rojo dribbled into the box, drawing the GWU centerback and goalie to him before laying the ball off the far post where Okiomah ran onto it for his team-best fourth goal of the season.
Junior goalkeeper
Michael Chesler made five saves in the contest, including two spectacular fingertip stops, to earn his fourth shutout of the season and the 11th of his career, tying the HPU Division I career record.
The three assists by Rojo is an HPU Division I game record and moves the senior into first place in High Point Division I history with 17 career asssits.
With the win, High Point improves to 4-2-1 while Gardner-Webb falls to 2-7-0. The Running Bulldogs will next head to Asheville, N.C., to play UNC Asheville on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
“We wanted to start 1-0 in the conference to send a statement that we are the team that will be chased all year,” Fonder said. “Now our second game is just as critical as our first and we just need to prepare and get ready for that.”
The Panthers will next host regional rival UNC Greensboro on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. in Vert Stadium. The game will be the first of three regular season contests broadcast in the area by WCWG. The game will be shown primarily on channel 20.3 or on Time Warner Cable channel 131. Check Local listings for specific information.
