HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's soccer team scored four goals as they defeated USC Upstate 4-3 to secure their first Big South victory Saturday afternoon.
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 4, USC Upstate 3
Records: High Point (4-1-2) (1-0-0), Upstate (2-4-1) (0-1-0)
Head Coach Zach Haines: "That was a wild game. We had a great start in the first 25 minutes, we were fantastic and playing exactly the way we wanted to play. Being up two nil, we didn't sustain it and they did a good job of responding. The second half was just a crazy and wild conference game where a lot of things happened. A lot of goals, mistakes, and many calls from the referee that were going against us and going against them. It was a wild game, but I loved our resilience. We could've gotten really frustrated and fallen apart, not getting the result we wanted tonight; but we did a great job of continuing to stick together and pushed forward and deserved to win in the end."
The true freshman,
Anthony Ramirez, native of Thomasville, N.C. got the start tonight and showed why he belongs on the field. He got HPU on the board in the 15th minute with his first career goal.
Karson Kendall took the feed off the volley from the corner kick and directed it to Ramirez. Ramirez then swept his right foot meeting the ball on the turf and lasered it to the top right corner of the net.
"It was an unbelievable finish," said Haines. "He got us going with that goal out of nothing really. That sparked the rest of the team into really doing what we wanted to do with the ball"
Finn McRobb, who has had a hand in almost each of the Panther's games this season, notched his fourth goal of the slate.
Jefferson Amaya lined up for the free kick in the 25th minute and directed the ball to the middle of the box. McRobb then took a step and dove to his right, met the ball with his head, and sent it to the bottom right of the net. HPU is now up 2-0 in the first half.
At the end of the first half, HPU had seven shots to the Spartans six.
Just at the start of the second half, the Spartans got on the board in the 48th minute. Braiden Hall scored to bring the Panthers lead to one.
Amaya lined up for another free kick in the 49th minute. He fired with his right foot, the ball caught the left cross bar, and redirected it to the top right of the net. This allowed HPU to jump to a bigger lead as they were now up 3-1 on the Spartans.
The second half started to turn real chippy and the referees were working hard giving out fouls and a few yellow cards to the Spartans players and coaches.
USC Upstate found their second goal after Dzenan Cerimagic netted one in the 66th minute to cut the lead back to one.
Just a few minutes later, there was a foul in the box leading to a Spartan penalty kick. Adrian Penaite scored off the PK. The game was then tied with 17 minutes to play in the match.
There was another foul in the box, but this time HPU took the penalty kick. Amaya lined up behind the ball and shot it to the right side of the net. The keeper dove left which allowed HPU to go up 4-3 with just 14 minutes to play. That was Amaya's second of the game and the winning goal for HPU.
"It's always great to score, but especially in games like this," said Amaya. "It's great to get two goals but at the end of the day, what matters is the team got the three points and we keep the momentum going into the next game."
The Panthers secured their first conference victory in front of 520 fans in the rain on Family Weekend.
Both teams ended with 15 shots a piece and HPU had six corners to Upstate's three.
Up Next: The Panthers are back on the road as they take on the Hokies of Virginia Tech on Tuesday, Sept 26 at 6 p.m.
#GoHPU
