RICHMOND, Va. – The High Point University men’s soccer team fell to Old Dominion by a score of 3-2 on Friday evening at the VCU Rams Classic in Richmond, Va. HPU surrendered two goals in the final five minutes to drop the first game of the 2013 season.
“Obviously this was a tough loss today,” head coach Dustin Fonder said. Old Dominion is a nationally elite team and over the course of the 90 minutes they were the better team. In the end they found a way to pull out the win. I was proud of the fight our team showed today, unfortunately we were missing a few key players and that lack of depth ended up hurting us in the final minutes.”
High Point led by a score of 2-1 with five minutes left to play when ODU forward Tim Hopkinson scored to tie the game at 2-2. Hopkinson was played in by Ryan Condotta and finished with a shot to the lower right corner to tie the game. Two minutes later, the Monarchs took the lead on a goal by Ivan Militar who tapped in a pass from Hopkinson to put ODU up 3-2.
The Panthers’ defense did well to withstand a furious Old Dominion attack throughout the game. The Monarchs out shot HPU, 26-5, and held an 8-2 edge in shots on goal. Freshman Ryan Massey took the loss in his collegiate debut after replacing sophomore Kody Palmer in goal in the 22nd minute. Massey made five saves in the game for High Point.
Redshirt-freshman Pat Shelton opened the scoring in the 10th minute with HPU’s first goal of the 2013 season. Sophomore Ben Burdon cut his defender in the right corner and hit a cross to the far post where Shelton beat his mark and headed the ball into the left side of the net for his first collegiate goal, putting High Point in front 1-0.
The Panthers struck again in the 25th minute when sophomore Erien Campbell headed in a cross from sophomore Austin Yearwood to increase the HPU lead to 2-0. Yearwood received a short corner and delivered it into the box. Campbell made a run across the front of the ODU goal and out-jumped the defense to snap the header into the net.
The 2-0 lead lasted until the 70th minute when Old Dominion’s Jesse Miralrio got the Monarchs back within one with a shot from 18-yards out. The midfielder found space at the top of the box and beat Massey with a hard shot to the lower left corner to put ODU on the board.
High Point returns to action in Richmond, Va., on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., when the team plays UAB in its second and final game at the VCU Rams Classic.