CLINTON, S.C. – The High Point University women's soccer team scored three second-half goals as four different scorers notched a goal and the defense collected back-to-back clean sheets in a pivotal shutout road win at Presbyterian College, 4-0, on Wednesday night.
Head Coach Aaron McGuiness: "It's always difficult to play on the road, especially down here. It's a challenging place to come and full credit to our ladies for embracing the challenge. Part of that was us challenging our players to get the ball into those wide spaces, attack their outside backs, and get the ball into the box. That's how we scored our first goal. After the first half after that, we started to lose our way a little bit and tried to attack in different manners. Second half, we saw the product of relentlessly doing that and were very pleased with how they took that message on board and how they applied it in the game."
SITE: Edens Field
SCORE: High Point (4), Presbyterian (0)
RECORDS: High Point (4-8-2, 3-2-1), Presbyterian (4-5-1, 1-5)
High Point took the game by storm when
Sophie Redner found the back of the net just three minutes into the game. She scored by shooting to the top right, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead on her first collegiate goal.
Just over halfway through the first half, the Panthers kept the pressure on, with back-to-back shots from Morgan Wilcox and Ally Ruiz.
HPU came back from halftime ready to extend its lead. At the 55:29 mark, Wilcox connected with
Brooke Potter and
Sabba Haghgoo, who then shot to the bottom center of the goal, giving High Point a 2-0 lead.
Kari Powell scored her first goal of the season off a double-assist from
Taylor Howarth and
Aleena Ulke, where Powell shouldered the ball to score, extending the lead to 3-0. Minutes later,
Gianna Rizzo connected with
Chloe Edwards to find the top left of the net, scoring High Point's final goal. Rizzo collected her first collegiate goal in the game.
High Point finished with 23 shots and 12 on goal. Ten Panthers took shots in the game, with four coming out victorious to claim a goal.
The Panthers' defense was on fire, keeping Presbyterian off the board all game. High Point's goalkeeper Nylah Mirshafiei stayed on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes and had three saves while securing her second consecutive clean sheet.
Up Next: The Panthers are heading back to Vert Stadium where High Point will face Charleston Southern on Wednesday, October 28, at 7 p.m for their Breast Cancer Awareness game.
#GoHPU
