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• High Point lost to Dayton by a score of 2-1 at home on Thursday.
• Sophomore Avery Ryan scored his first goal of the season for the Panthers.
• Redshirt-senior Kody Palmer made a career-high 11 saves for HPU.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's soccer team dropped a 2-1 decision to Dayton on Thursday night at Vert Stadium. Sophomore Avery Ryan notched his first goal of the season for HPU.

"I thought the boys did well in what was a good college soccer game tonight," head coach EJ O'Keeffe said. "We have been working on our attacking principles so I was proud of the way we created quality shots against a very good opponent in Dayton. The biggest letdown of the night was conceding a penalty right after scoring in the first half. We need to have a better response when we put ourselves in good situations moving forward."

The loss drops the Panthers to 1-2-1 on the season while Dayton improves to 3-2-0.

High Point took the lead in the 29th minute of a back-and-forth first half on Ryan's first goal of the season. Senior Austin Yearwood delivered a cross into the box from the left and junior Renato Punyed jumped up to nod it down to Ryan. The HPU forward then scored from just in front of goal to put High Point up 1-0.

Less than a minute later, Dayton leveled the game at 1-1 on a penalty kick goal by Amass Amankona. The Flyers earned the kick from the spot on a foul right at the edge of the penalty area and Amankona beat redshirt-senior Kody Palmer with a high shot to the right.

The game remained knotted until the 75th minute when Dayton got a goal from James Haupt to go up 2-1. Haupt was set loose on the left side of the penalty area on a through ball from Michael Frasca and finished with a low shot to the far post.

The game was up-and-down all night with both team combining for 26 shots, including 21 on goal. Dayton finished with a slight 19-17 edge in shots and a 13-8 advantage in shots on goal.

Palmer made a career-high 11 saves on the night in a losing effort. The keeper's previous career high for a game was nine in a game against Campbell during his redshirt-freshman season.

High Point continues its stretch of three-straight games against opponents from the Atlantic 10 when it travels to play Davidson on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m.

#GoHPU