FARMVILLE, Va. – The Lancers needed a win, and Finnlay Wyatt gave it to them. The sophomore forward scored twice in the second half to lift Longwood past Gardner-Webb, 3-1, Wednesday evening in a must-win matchup that secured Longwood's berth to the Big South Tournament, which begins Nov. 11.
 
The Lancers (4-12-1, 3-5-0 Big South) entered the matchup ranked seventh in the Big South standings and leading ninth-place Gardner-Webb by just two points for one of the final spots in the eight-team Big South Tournament field. With the win, Longwood secures at least an eighth-place league finish with the potential for the tournament's No. 6 seed, contingent on the results from the league's final week of play.
 
"There is no better feeling as a coach than to send your seniors out on a high note," said Longwood head coach Jon Atkinson, who saw his team fire a season-high 27 shots Wednesday. "While Finnlay will undoubtedly take the Man of the Match award, this was truly a team performance with our two seniors as the central attractions."
 
Wyatt, a sophomore from Richmond, Va., stole the spotlight from senior teammates Jonathan Kukapa and Anthony Ugorji when he scored twice in a span of six minutes in the second half to break a 1-1 tie. Both goals were sparked by sophomore classmate Dan Campos, who first fed Wyatt on a breakaway that yielded the game-winning goal and then set him up with a pass at the top of the penalty arc that Wyatt launched through traffic into the back of the net.
 
The goals were the fruits of a busy night for Wyatt, who sliced through Gardner-Webb's backfield on the way to a career-high 11 shots. His six shots on goal were just two shy of the eight the Runnin' Bulldogs accumulated as a team.
 
"We knew the consequence of the game," Wyatt said. "We knew we had to win, and it was senior night so this was a good way to say farewell to Anthony and Jonathan. We came in, we weren't scared and we knew we could take the game."
 
The victory came in the final home game for Kukapa and Ugorji, who were honored before the contest in a senior night ceremony. Both seniors started in their final game at the Athletics Complex and spent all but six minutes together on the field. Ugorji was active on the offensive end, sending three of his four shots on goal, while Kukapa manned the backfield from the defensive middie spot and helped hold Gardner-Webb to a single goal that came on a penalty kick.
 
That one blemish, which Gardner-Webb midfielder Patrick Gurser punched in after the Lancers were whistled for a handball in the box, was the lone fault for goalkeeper Carlos Canas, who logged seven saves and fended off eight corner kicks. Gurser's one-on-one score negated a late first-half goal by freshman Jonathan Majin, who put Longwood ahead in the 43rd minute with a well-placed shot that ran the endline and skipped in off the heel of Gardner-Webb goalkeeper Matthew Swan.
 
Longwood's three-goal outburst comes in the midst of the team's hottest stretch of the season. The Lancers have scored multiple goals in seven of the past 11 games while surrendering just one goal in four of the past six.
 
"We've always been confident in our ability to play going forward, but it was great this game to be able to tighten it up a bit," Wyatt said. "[Gardner-Webb] had chances, and it was an unfortunate penalty to concede that led to their goal, but we shut them off there. To be able to take advantage of the opportunities we had and come out with a win like this when we needed it, it's a great feeling."
 
Despite the senior night victory and Big South Tournament berth, Longwood has little time to celebrate with the season finale at Coastal Carolina looming on Saturday at 2 p.m. Longwood's tournament seed will be decided following that game.
 
"This was a must-win game, and with the fantastic crowd on our side, we pulled out a great result that will do our confidence a world of good," Atkinson said. "We were pushed all the way and dodged a few bullets from a very capable and classy Gardner-Webb outfit, but quite simply it was our night and nobody was going to take that away from us."
 
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