ROCK HILL, S.C. – The High Point University men's soccer team defeat the Winthrop Eagles, 3-0, for its ninth win in a row on Friday night in Rock Hill.
Site: Eagle Field
Score: High Point 3, Winthrop 0
Records: High Point (9-2-2, 5-0-0), Winthrop (4-8-1, 3-2-0)
Head Coach Zach Haines: "We weren't quite at our best tonight, but I love that we never got ourselves off track. We were resilient even when things weren't quite coming off in the final third of the first half as we created a lot of chances but didn't quite execute. We kept pushing and it was great to be able to put away a comfortable win in the end even though maybe it wasn't always at our best level."
High Point started dominating on offense early creating a lot of chances. The Eagle defense and a few saves by Andres Manzano Garcia kept the Panthers off the board for the first 18 minutes.
Celestin Blondel would then score his second goal of the season in the 19th minute to put HPU ahead 1-0. An unassisted goal as Blondel fired one that got past a diving Garcia after
Frankie DeFrancesco broke up a pass by the Eagles to get Blondel the ball.
HPU took control of the shots as they held the 6-2 advantage heading into the locker room at the break. The only two shots the Eagles took were good enough for
Josh Caron to make two clutch saves to keep the Eagles from scoring the equalizer.
The second half started with a few yellow cards handed to both sides. The Panthers finally built some momentum down field and
Mohammed Seidu extended the High Point lead with his first goal in the Purple and White in the 58th minute.
Jefferson Amaya sent in a perfect ball that
Brendan Krueger was able get a head on to direct it to Seidu. Seidu took a hefty left-footed strike on the run that stunned the keeper and found the back of the net.
Ross Johnstone fired off the next two shots High Point got off before adding to its lead. Scoring his first goal of the season,
Kaya Ignacio was in the perfect spot in the box to receive the cross from Blondel and fire it home to take a 3-0 lead in the 84
th minute.
Winthrop got two more shots off before the final whistle. The Eagles did earn the upper hand in shots in the second half but the HPU defense and Caron in net were able to put up another clean sheet to earn its ninth win in a row and stay undefeated in the Big South Conference.
Up Next: High Point will have about a week off before heading to Clinton, S.C. to play Presbyterian on Saturday, October 26 at 7 p.m.
#GoHPU
