Site: High Point, NC (Vert Stadium)
Score: High Point 5, Gardner Webb 0
Records: High Point 8-6-3 (5-0-3), Gardner Webb 5-12-1 (3-4-1)
HIGH POINT, NC – The High Point University men’s soccer team is advancing to the Big South Championship game for the third consecutive season. Four different Panthers scored in the win as Cooper Lindfelt, Sebastian Chalbaud, MD Myers, Ashton Perkins, and Jackson Ruckman each got on the board in the big semifinal win for the Purple & White. The win sets up a match between the #1 and #2 seed as HPU will travel to Buies Creek on Sunday to face Campbell at 1:00 PM.
Zach Haines: “I’m really excited for the guys, they put together a complete game. I thought that coming into it we knew we had confidence, especially on the defensive side we have been keeping a lot of clean sheets and have done really well on that side of it. We were creating chances but the goals just were not quite coming for us as of late and really throughout a large part of the season. So I am really happy for the guys on both sides of the ball because they get the clean sheet and we some of these guys who have been working so hard to create chances all year long for us to get the finishing product on some good goals for us. An all-around great performance, super happy for the guys.”
Panther Particulars
In the first half, HPU had recorded four shots in the first twenty minutes. In the 20th minute, Myers had a quality chance in the box in close with the GWU keeper and his shot went just wide as the game stayed 0-0.
The Panthers’ persistence paid off in the 22nd minute as Lindfelt scored the first goal of his young career in the Big South Semifinals. The sophomore defender gave his Panthers a 1-0 advantage early in the first half. Lindfelt delivered a brilliant strike from a corner kick delivery from Mason Marcey
Ten minutes later, HPU added some insurance in the 32nd minute as Chalbaud scored off a Marcey assist. Chalbaud was able to finish a ball that came bouncing into the box from Marcey to put HPU up 2-0. It was Marcey’s second assist of the night.
The Panthers continued the pressure as three minutes later a hard shot from Myers found the back of the net a provided a three-goal lead for High Point inside Vert Stadium in the first half.
High Point took a three-goal advantage into the break after 45 minutes of play in High Point.
A little over ten minutes into the second half, Perkins scored off of a rebound as he fired a shot after securing a ball that bounced off the crossbar and was originally supplied by Myers. Perkins put HPU up 4-0 in the 57th minute.
In the 76th minute, the exclamation point was placed on the win as a second Panther scored their first collegiate goal when Ruckman buried the fifth goal of the night.
HPU went on to win 5-0, it was High Point’s 8th clean sheet of the season. This puts Holden Trent and his defense tied for eighth in the country for most shutouts this season. HPU is 14th in the country in shutout percentage at .500.
UP NEXT
A rematch of the 2019 Big South Championship is set as High Point will travel to Buies Creek to face Campbell on Sunday at 1:00 PM. Campbell won its semifinal game 7-0 both the Panthers and the Camels combined for 12 goals on Wednesday night in their respective semifinal games en route back to the Big South Final.