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The High Point University men's soccer team fell at home to No. 23 Elon by a score of 4-1 on Saturday night in front of a record crowd of 1,527 at Vert Stadium. Freshman Brandon Sloan scored his first collegiate goal in the game for the Panthers.

"I was pleased with how we started the game and played in the first half, unfortunately we were unable to carry that quality through the entire 90 minutes," head coach Dustin Fonder said. "We had great energy in the first half. We had two chances we couldn't convert and they scored on two of their four shots. Elon is a very good team. Darren Powell always does a great job getting them ready to play and they were more ready than we were tonight."

Elon took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute with a header from in close. The Phoenix earned a corner kick that was cleared out of the box. Elon's Charles Howard sent the ball back into the box where it was headed on to the left post by Matt Wescoe. Waterman found space and hit a header into the ground under HPU keeper Ryan Massey.

The Phoenix doubled its advantage in the 40^th minute with a goal by Caue Da Sliva on a counter attack. Miguel Salazar hit a long ball from midfield to Da Silva at the top of the box. Berlin took the ball out of the air and lofted a shot over Massey from the edge of the box.

Elon pushed its lead to 3-0 early in the second half on a goal by Matt Wescoe in the 53rd minute. Austin Dunker played a ball through the back line from the midfield and Waterman beat Massey to the ball. The forward hit the ball to the right post where Wescoe tapped it into the empty net.

The Phoenix struck again just three minutes later when Waterman scored his second of the night to put Elon ahead 4-0. Dunker once again started the play when he stripped the ball and played it through the HPU defense to Lovitz. The midfielder hit a cross in front of goal with his first touch and Waterman finished with a jumping kick after making a run up the middle of the box.

High Point got a goal back in the 88th minute on a free kick by Sloan. Freshman Matt Gweh draw a foul at the top of the box and Sloan hit a low shot under the wall, beating the Elon keeper to his left. The goal was the first of Sloan's collegiate career.

Elon finished with a 15-9 edge in shots in the game, including an 8-3 advantage in shots on goal. Massey made four saves in the game for High Point while Elon keeper Nathan Dean had two for the Phoenix.

With the loss, High Point falls to 2-5-1 overall on the season. Elon improves to 7-1-1 overall.

The Panthers return to conference play this week with a home game against Liberty on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at Vert Stadium. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m.