No. 2 High Point Edges No. 3 Gardner-Webb, Advances to Final
The High Point University men's soccer team beat Gardner-Webb on Wednesday night (Nov 13), the win advances HPU to the Big South championship for the fifth time in program history. It was a high scoring event in which High Point never trailed once. Ilias Kosmidis recorded two goals for the Panthers in the first half while Alex Abril scored the game-winner for HPU. The win gave HPU their 13th win of the season which, puts the Panthers in elite company as only eight teams have won 13 games or more in 2018 and 2019. This list includes Seattle, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Indiana, UCF, Rhode Island, and Saint Mary's.
"We are extremely happy and thrilled for the group tonight to get a win. Head coach Zach Haines said. "Obviously in the conference tournament you know it is going to be a very difficult game no matter who the opponent is, fortunately we were able to play at home tonight. Big thank you to everyone that came out and braved the cold weather especially our pep band. For them to be out here with all of our families and friends as well, it was an incredible show of support. We knew it was going to be a challenge, Gardner-Webb has had a very good season. I thought they did a lot of good things tonight, they asked some big questions from us. The game got quite open, it was pretty exciting end to end, good thing we were on from an attacking standpoint. Maybe not our best night defensively, but from an attacking standpoint we played some of our best stuff we have played all year and created some very good chances and scored some very big goals."
The Panthers made the first move in what was a five-goal game total with Kosmidis scoring first in the 12th minute of the contest. He was assisted by Josh Baker It was one of many terrific chances Kosmidis would see on the evening. Gardner Webb would strike back in the first half, scoring in the 28th minute to tie the game at 1. A little over a minute later Kosmidis would score again to put the Panthers back on top by one. Jordan Lonchar assisted Kosmidis who put the Panthers up 1. Including the regular season, Ilias' goal total is now up to eight on the year.
The Panthers made some big plays on defense as well, in the 33rd minute Keegan Meyer made a stop on a shot fired towards him, Meyer blocked it with his legs then Daniel Shahim stepped up and made a huge play with his feet to protect HPU's 2-1lead. High Point took a goal lead into halftime.
The momentum would seriously start changing early in the second half as Gardner Webb responded with a goal of their own in the 47th minute to tie the game at 2. GWU tied up the game just two minutes into the second half of play. With the pressure building, High Point searched for a big play to answer. Alex Abril has been key contributor clutch moments this season (vs Asheville, vs Elon) and tonight was no exception. He kept a play alive had an opening to shoot from outside of the box and scored to put High Point up 2-1 in the 75th minute. This goal would ultimately decide the game.
This was a back and forth affair and the statistics tell that tale, the Runnin Bulldogs outshot HPU 18-17 but it was High Point who outshot GWU in the second half eleven to eight. It was another solid performance from goalkeeper Meyer as he recorded seven saves.
With the win High Point heads back to the Big South Championship game. This will be HPU's fifth appearance in a Big South Championship Game, the Panthers are still on the prowl for their first tournament championship win.
Up Next: #2 High Point will travel to Buies Creek to challenge #1 Campbell on Sunday At 2:00pm on ESPN + for the Big South Championship.