FARMVILLE, Va. – High Point used its notoriously stingy defense and a pair of early scoring opportunities to top Longwood, 3-0, Wednesday evening at Vert Stadium.
The Panthers (5-3-3, 2-1-1 Big South) entered the matchup as one of the Big South's most impenetrable defensive teams and only added to that reputation by becoming the first team to shut out Longwood this season. Anchored by a two-keeper rotation of Jordan Beets and Alex Persiani, the Panthers allowed just three shots on goal, all of which were corralled by Persiani in the second half.
The loss drops Longwood to 6-6-1 overall and 1-3-0 in the Big South with all three of those league losses coming on the road.
"To quote Bill Parcells, 'We ARE our record,'" Longwood head coach
Todd Dyer said. "With that said, we have to find a way to be better. We were pretty unlucky with those two goals in the first half, but we have to change our own luck. The last two games we've shot ourselves in the foot and gone down early. We simply can't do that against good teams."
High Point (5-3-3, 2-1-1 Big South) scored just 4:56 into the game when Longwood keeper
Hailey Machen blocked the Panthers' first shot of the evening but sent it right to the feet of Jenny Marshall who poked it in for a 1-0 lead. Longwood held up for the next 40 minutes, but a foul in the Lancer box gave High Point a penalty kick that Paige Rombach drilled in to extend the lead to 2-0.
Longwood came out firing in the second half, banging back-to-back shots at Persiani from the boots of senior
Kelsey McDonald and freshman
Christina Corbin. Persiani stopped both of those, however, and would not face another shot on goal until she stonewalled
Amanda Spencer in the 79th minute.
The only goal Machen surrendered the rest of the way came on a long-range Becca Rolfe shot from 20 yards out in the 80th minute.
The string of road losses is in stark contrast to how the Lancers ended the 2013 regular season when they won their last five road games and extended that streak to eight at the start of this season. Longwood will now return to the Athletics Complex for a three-game homestand beginning Saturday against Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m. The Lancers then host Presbyterian on Oct. 15 and Charleston Southern on Oct. 18.
"If we're going to do anything worthwhile this season, it has to start Saturday," Dyer said. "And then it's a matter of playing with urgency all over the field for 90 minutes."
#GoWood
