HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men's soccer team extends its unbeaten at home streak to 16 games as they defeat Radford University, 3-1, on Saturday night.
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 3, Radford 1
Records: High Point (4-2-2, 2-0-0), Radford (0-9-0, 0-2-0)
Head Coach Zach Haines: "It was a great performance as we dominated in every phase of the game. I love our guy's mentality coming into tonight. We wanted to make sure that we were on top of it and off to a good start and then never getting complacent. Even when the first and second goal came in, we wanted to continue to push and show that for 90 minutes. Credit to Radford, they are always going to fight, they're always going to work, and they had some nice responses. But we did a great job of putting the game to bed in the second half."
The Panthers got off to another hot start scoring early in the game as that has been a common theme for HPU in recent games. Five minutes into the first half, who else but
Frankie DeFrancesco to give the Panthers an early lead for his third goal of his rookie season. Assisted by
Kaya Ignacio and
Brendan Krueger, the ball found DeFrancesco just before the keeper's box to be able to send a sweet finish to the back of the net to take the lead.
"Frankie, I mean he is just off to a great start," Haines said. "He has adapted so quickly to the college game, and it took him a few games. It took him a few weeks of preseason to really see what he needed to do and how to bring what he's capable of doing at this level and it has worked out. He's listened, he's absorbed everything and more than anything he puts the team first. The goals are coming as a result of him working extremely hard for the team, doing everything he can possibly do to help us. That work is now leading to production."
A few shots by the Panthers filled up the gap before
Beau Yantz recorded his first goal of the season to extend the Panther lead to two in the 19th minute. On a ball that was crossed in by
Fynn Geigle found the head of a Highlander defender which allowed for Yantz to be in perfect position to take the rebound and fire it to the top right of the net with his left foot.
At the half, HPU held a 9-2 shot advantage over Radford.
DeFrancesco fired another shot on goal in the 62nd minute as he attempted a header off a cross. Krueger was right there for the rebound and was able to send the ball right past the keeper to the top left of the night to really push the Panthers lead out to three.
HPU continued to dominate in all offensive categories as they racked up the shots against the Highlander keeper. Five shots were fired off before a mistake on the Panthers end of the ball costed them an own goal as Radford cut the lead to two in the 88th minute.
Alfred Baafi, and DeFrancesco both tallied four shots tonight adding to the 18 total shots, and nine shots on goals. 10 different Panthers got shots off in tonight's match.
Solid defense and a great performance in net by
Luke Snyder earned HPU its fourth victory in a row as they start conference play, 2-0.
Up Next: High Point will take the short drive to Elon to battle the Phoenix on Tuesday, October 1 at 7 p.m.
#GoHPU
