CARY, N.C. – Following a pair of disappointing outings in their USA South debut last weekend, the William Peace University men's soccer team bounced back this afternoon against the Panthers of LaGrange College to earn their first ever conference win.
WPU (3-4, 1-2 USAS) allowed two late goals after taking a 2-0 lead into the second half and going up 3-0 in the 69th minute on a goal from Collin Zacharzuk, but the Pacers recaptured the momentum and held on, 3-2.
"The second half made us all a little nervous, but it feels really good to finally get our first conference win," said head coach Zane Hill. "The boys really had a good performance in the first half, and luckily we were able to put in that third goal and hold on"
Raymond Haas and David Flores both scored for LaGrange (1-7-1, 0-1 USAS). Hass scored on a penalty kick in the 72nd minute, and Flores found the back of the net in the 82nd with the help of Kristian Javier.
Zacharzuk's first goal of the year proved to be the game winner though, as he maneuvered his way around and through multiple defenders on the pass from Eli Grimes, who played him with long through ball over the top of the defense.
Dylan Shields struck first for the Pacers in the 15th minute as he collected a loose ball at the top of the 18 yard box, realized the keeper was off his line, and put it away for his team leading third goal of the year in only his fifth game
Tanielu Riley helped the Pacers to a 2-0 lead scoring his first goal of the year in the final minute of the opening half on a free kick from Chris Deleon.
Despite near disaster in the second half, WPU controlled much of the game outshooting LaGrange, 22-10, in addition to several other promising opportunities where they were unable to capitalize in producing shots.
"I think you saw today that we can really play. Sometime we forget that against these better teams, but I think we have proved we are definitely capable of really going somewhere in the next couple of years," Hill said. "There are still some technical pieces to shore up, but we look forward to bouncing back tomorrow with another opportunity to fix some of those holes in our game"
The Pacers will host Huntingdon College tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
LIVE STATS will be available for the contest.
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