Men's Soccer Edged by Radford, 2-1

ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? Emmanuel Joseph had a goal and an assist in the first half as Radford held on for a 2-1 Big South Conference road win over UNC Asheville Saturday afternoon at Greenwood Field.

The Highlanders (7-4-1, 3-1-0 BSC) got a great performance from back-up goalkeeper Ryan Taylor. Taylor made six saves on the day, including a point-blank save with two minutes left to keep the Bulldogs (4-5-2, 2-1-0 BSC) from tying the match.

“This was a well-played match but we allowed Radford to get forward a few times in the first half and paid for it with goals,” stated UNC Asheville coach Steve Cornish. “Our lads did a wonderful job coming back in the second half and kept coming but fell just a little short. Our effort was quite good against an excellent Radford squad.”

Joseph opened the scoring in the first four minutes of the match. Radford countered against a Bulldog threat and Justin Zimmer zipped a perfect pass to Joseph who scored from 15 yards out for a 1-0 Highlander lead at the 4:31 mark.

Asheville came back and fired the next four shots on goal but Taylor made three saves to preserve the Radford lead.

Midway through the first half, the Highlanders had a counter-attack again and scored. Joseph made a nice pass to Iyiola Awosika who scored from eight yards out for a 2-0 RU lead at the 30:13 mark.

The Bulldogs had a 6-5 shot advantage at halftime but the Highlanders led 2-0.

Each team had chances in the second half before Asheville took advantage of a Radford foul to get on the scoreboard. Off a direct kick from 30 yards out, Nathan Neal sent a perfect pass into the RU goal area. Patrick Tate was there for the Bulldogs and headed the ball into the goal to cut the lead to 2-1 at 73:29.

Asheville dominated possession in the final 16 minutes but could not get a high-quality shot away. Finally in the 87^th minute, senior J.W. Gallagher was seven yards from the goal with the ball. His point-blank shot was smothered by Taylor to keep Radford in front.

The Bulldogs play next at home against Gardner-Webb Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. Radford heads to High Point for a 7 p.m. Big South Conference match.

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Players Mentioned

J.W. Gallagher

Nathan Neal

Patrick Tate

University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics