GREENSBORO, N.C.—Jared Nelson tallied nine points for visiting Pfeiffer University as Greensboro College dropped a Friday afternoon USA South Athletic Conference (USA South) contest, 16-12, in both team’s opener in league play.
The Pride (4-1, 0-1 USA South) and Falcons (3-1, 1-0 USA South) exchanged goals for the first six minutes of the contest. The second Pride goal fueled a run of three unanswered goals from the Pride, capped by Austin Abourjilie’s (Greensboro, N.C./Northwest Guilford/William Peace) goal at the 6:16 mark of the period.
Pfeiffer evened the contest, 5-5, with 6:07 left in the second quarter on John Allen’s goal. The Pride capitalized on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty later in the period to produce two goals on the man-up as Davis Miller capped the rally with a goal at 3:15 on a feed from Michael Halladay. Pfeiffer countered with a man-advantage goal of their own at 2:11 and then capped the rally with 1:18 remaining in the period to even the score, 7-7.
Pfeiffer opened the third quarter with a three-goal rally, but the Pride countered with a three-goal rally of their own beginning at the 7:55 mark of the period on a Davis Miller goal. The Pride closed the period scoring the final two goals of the rally 49 seconds apart with 3:51 left in the period to even the contest, 10-10.
Spencer Kontoulas (Greensboro, N.C./Northern Guilford) capitalized on a Pfeiffer slashing penalty that ended the third quarter. 19 seconds into the final period, Kontoulas scored a man-up goal off a Halladay feed. Pfeiffer took control in the final ten minutes of the game, scoring five of the game’s final six goals to earn the win.
Abourjilie led the Pride’s goal scorers with four goals while adding one assist. Miller joined Abourjilie for the team-lead in goals with four while adding two ground balls. Halladay finished with one goal and two assists while tallying four ground balls. Kontoulas tallied a goal and four assists to tie for the team-lead in points. Justin Matthews led the Pride’s defense with five ground balls and a caused turnover.
Nelson led Pfeiffer with four goals and five assists. Quinn Becraft led Pfeiffer’s goal scorers with five while Allen finished with three goals.
Pfeiffer out-shot Greensboro, 54-42. The Falcons held the advantage on clears finishing 16-for-17 while the Pride finished 19-for-28. The Falcons held a 22-9 advantage on faceoffs while the Pride finished three-for-five on the man-up compared to Pfeiffer’s two-for-five.
Christopher Stallings (4-1) took the loss for the Pride in net, making 16 saves. He added five ground balls. Matt Stocks (3-1) claimed the win for Pfeiffer, stopping 13 shots in net.
The Pride returns to action Wednesday, traveling to Averett University for a 3 p.m. USA South contest.
### WE ARE 1 PRIDE ###
Courtesy of Bryan Jones, Greensboro College Sports Information Director