HPU Men’s Soccer Drops 2-0 Decision To Liberty At Home

• High Point lost at home to Liberty by a score of 2-0 on Wednesday night.
• The first goal by Liberty ended a streak of 405 scoreless minutes for the HPU defense.
• Sophomore Ebe Kudolo led the team with four shots, including two on target.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s soccer team fell at home to Liberty University by a score of 2-0 on Wednesday night at Vert Stadium. The loss was the first of the season in conference play for HPU.

“I thought we played really well for the first 60 minutes or so but we just couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the net,” head coach EJ O’Keeffe said. “We made two critical mistakes and Liberty punished us for both of them. When they broke on us they broke well. We can’t give good teams opportunities and when we have our own opportunities we need to bury them.”

The Panthers fall back to .500 at 4-4-3 overall and 1-1-0 in the Big South with the loss while Liberty improves to 5-5-0 overall and 1-1-0 in conference play.

High Point attacked out of the gate as shots by senior Austin Yearwood and sophomore Avery Ryan were blocked and an attempt by sophomore Ebe Kudolo was saved.

Liberty took a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute with a goal by Geovanny Murrillo against the run of play. The Flames sent a cross to the top of the box that was cleared by freshman Johnny Fenwick but the ball was controlled by Murrillo who hit a low shot into the net for the lead. The goal by Liberty ended a streak of 405 scoreless minutes for the HPU defense.

The Flames doubled their lead nine minutes into the second half on a goal by Blessing Tahouna, his second of the season. After a Liberty attack was cleared away, a recycled ball was played into the box from the right flank by Bay Kurtz and it fell to the feet of Tahouna at the far post. The forward settled the ball and beat redshirt-senior Kody Palmer with a low shot to give Liberty a 2-0 lead.

The Panthers outshot Liberty by a 17-10 margin on the night with a 5-4 edge in shots on goal. Kudolo led HPU with four shots in the loss. Palmer finished with two saves in the loss while Jeremy Lee stopped four shots for LU.

High Point returns to the road this weekend for a Big South Conference matchup against Longwood on Saturday, Oct. 10, in Farmville, Va. Kickoff in the game is set for 6 p.m.