FARMVILLE, Va. – Junior goalkeeper Carlos Canas made four saves – three of which were in the second half – to record his second shutout of the season, as the Longwood men's soccer team earned a 2-0 win on a cold, drizzly Thursday night at the Athletics Complex.

The win ends a two-game unbeaten streak for Portland (2-5-2), as the Pilots traveled to Farmville with a win against then-No. 8 Oregon State and a scoreless tie against then-No. 10 Washington in their last two games. Meanwhile, the Lancers (5-3-0) win their second straight, as the squad continues on its best start in the Division 1 era.

"That first half was some of the best football I've seen a Longwood team play in a lot of years," said head coach Jon Atkinson. "We were able to get those two first half goals and really had a chance to put the game away with more quality chances that we couldn't quite convert."

Canas, who has seen the field in three games, has two shutouts on the year, while giving up just a single goal in Longwood's 1-0 loss to George Mason. Canas, along with Carl Carpenter have yielded just 1.23 goals per game which ranks fourth among schools in the Big South.

"The guys in front of me really stepped up," Canas said. "Everybody on the team really stepped up. I thought today we truly played as a team, where at times in our other games I felt we may have been trying to do too much individually."

Willy Miezan opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season in the fourth minute, taking a Will Lambert pass into the center of the box and heading it past Portland goalkeeper Paul Christensen. Miezan becomes the Big South's second-leading goal scorer this season, just one goal back of Campbell's Bradley Farias.

"That first goal from Willy was a big momentum boost for our guys," Atkinson said. "It just gave us the confidence to play the way we are capable of playing."

The goal from Miezan ended a Portland scoreless streak at 203:16 minutes of game action, as the Pilots came into the game coming off a pair of shutouts. Miezan – who scored his first marker since Longwood's 2-0 win at Appalachian State – vaults back into the top-10 nationally in goals scored.

Longwood increased its lead in the 40th minute, as Lambert provided the first goal of his Longwood career. He took a pass from Christian Keilty to the top right of the 18-yard box and curled a shot into the top right corner of the goal.

"I may have been the one credited with the goal and assist, but this is definitely a team win for us," said Lambert, who enjoyed his first career three-point game. "Everyone stepped up and played an important role for us to get this win."

The Pilots put the pressure on the Longwood defense in the second half, but the backline, consisting of Michael Durr, Alex Waite, Marten Pajunurm and Chad Kozoyed, were equal to the task forcing four of Portland's second-half shots off target. Canas meanwhile saved his best effort for the final 20 minutes, where he made three of his four saves in the game.

"Portland came out in the second half and really put on a lot of pressure, but our guys stepped up and answered the challenge," Atkinson said. "We had a lot of good individual performances in general, but the play of our backline was fantastic."  

The Lancers will have six days to prepare for its second Big South contest at Radford Wednesday, Oct. 7, with kickoff set for 6 p.m.

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