HPU Men’s Soccer Loses at Home to Radford, 2-1

• Freshman Irvin Ramirez scored High Point’s lone goal in the 2-1 loss.
• HPU played a man down for 54 minutes after a red card to senior Mamadee Nyepon.
• High Point outshot Radford, 11-8, but put only two shots on goal.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s soccer team fell to by a score of 2-1 on Friday night at Vert Stadium. Freshman Irvin Ramirez scored for the Panthers in the loss.

“I am proud of our groups effort tonight,” head coach Dustin Fonder said. “We went a man down, which was unfortunate, and had to deal with that situation. I thought our guys responded well and showed good fight. Radford is a very good team so I am proud of how we played them while being a man down.”

High Point went down a man in the 36th minute after senior Mamadee Nyepon was shown a red card after an altercation between the senior and a Radford player.

Despite playing a man down, the Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute on a goal by Ramirez. Freshman Avery Ryan hit a cross across the face of goal which was pushed away by the RU keeper. The ball fell to Ramirez who hit a hard shot from 10-yards for his second score of the year.

The Highlanders came right back to tie the game just one minute later when a long ball up the field was headed back by Kieran Roberts to the oncoming Neil Martorana who scored with a shot from just outside the box.

Radford scored again in the 62nd minute when Chel Ho Park Kim found the net to make the score 2-1. Park Kim took advantage of an HPU miscommunication, cutting between the defender and goalkeeper to control the ball before shooting on an empty net.

The Panthers nearly tied the game late on a free kick by sophomore Renato Punyed in the 81st minute but the attempt was pushed past the post on a diving save by the RU keeper to keep the Highlanders up a goal.

High Point finished the game with an 11-8 edge in shots but managed to put just two shots on frame in the contest.

Freshman David Price made one save in the game for HPU, dropping to 3-2-0 on the season with the loss. Radford’s Aitor Pouseu Blanco made one save in the win for Radford to improve to 9-2-2.

The Panthers drop back to .500 with the loss at 5-5-1 and are now 3-1-0 in the Big South. Radford pushes its undefeated streak to 11-straight games and improves to 9-2-2 overall and 6-0-0 in the Big South.

High Point next travels to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to take on the University of Pittsburgh Panthers on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The game will kickoff at 7 p.m.