Site: Buies Creek, N.C. (Eakes Athletic Complex)
Score: High Point 1, Campbell 0
Records: High Point (5-1, 3-0), Campbell (3-1-1, 2-1-1)
Next HPU Event: Saturday, March 17th, — vs Winthrop (Rock Hill, S.C.)
BUIES CREEK, N.C. — The High Point University men’s soccer team improved to 5-1 overall on the season ad 3-0 in big south play with a 1-0 victory over Campbell. Sebastian Chalbaud provided the difference-maker in the 25th minute to put the Panthers up 1-0 in the first, High Point held Campbell’s high-powered offense to just 4 shots on goal in the victory. High Point is the first team to defeat Campbell at home since October of 2018. The 1-0-win marks HPU’s third shutout of the season, Holden Trent, who entered the contest 23rd in the nation in shutouts with two will see that ranking rise as he picked up his third of the year through six games. Trent made four saves on the night, two of which saved the game allowing HPU to keep the clean sheet. In High Point’s last four games against Campbell in Eakes HPU has shutout Campbell twice. The Panthers snapped Campbell’s 16 Big South match unbeaten streak with the victory while also extending the High Point unbeaten streak at Eakes in the regular season since 2013.
“We were immense tonight; the guys gave everything they had, Coach Zach Haines said after the 1-0 win over Campbell. “They knew it was going to be a fight, they knew it was going to be a challenge defensively because of the way Campbell plays particularly at home with lots of numbers forward, direct balls in the box. It was a full team effort of everyone willing to do whatever it took to get the result, so I could not be prouder of the group.”
The contest opened an early opportunity for the Panthers as Alex Abril recorded the first shot as he played a ball through to MD Myers who sent back on to Abril who struck a ball that rolled just wide of the ball. The Panther pressure was on early as they had a quality opportunity to score less than two minutes in.
The Camels would get a chance in the 11th minute as Trent was able to dive and prevent a Campbell shot from going in.
HPU was able to counter-attack what was a steady Camel offensive presence as Lalas Ayertey knocked the ball away and found Chalbaud downfield, Chalbaud lobbed the ball to the left of the field over to Abril who sent it back to Chalbaud who cut down towards the goal and finished to put HPU up 1-0 in the 25th minute.
The Panther defense was able to hold strong and limit an explosive Campbell offense to eight shots and only four shots on goal. Trent made four saves as the defense picked up their third clean sheet of the season.
“Holden made two great saves, I thought we had probably including the goal,” Coach Haines said. “The three best chances of the game and we took one of them and Holden managed to deny their two best chances of the game. Huge saves. We know that’s what he is capable of, he is capable of making a difference in terms of making the critical save when you need it. The backline was fantastic, they were so tough. They won everything they just did a great job all around. We got big-time performances from all of them.”
With the conference win, the Panthers improve to 29-3-3 in Big South play since 2016. The Panthers are now 3-0 in Big South play with wins over Gardner-Webb, Radford, and now Campbell.
UP NEXT: The Panther conference road slate continues as they travel to Winthrop next Wednesday, on March 17th with kickoff at 7:00 PM.