FARMVILLE, Va. -- Redshirt freshman Willy Miezan scored three goals in his official Longwood debut to lead the Lancers to a 4-1 rout over visiting VMI in the 2015 season opener Friday night at the Longwood Athletics Complex.

The Lancers defeated the Keydets in the opening game for the second straight season. Longwood (1-0-0) held VMI (0-1-0) to just five shots on goal for the 90 minutes – with all but one being saved by senior goalkeeper Carl Carpenter.

"It's always good to get that first win of the season under our belt," Longwood head coach Jon Atkinson said. "That was a good game for us to start off with and it's not going to get any easier for us as we begin to turn our attention to UNC Greensboro."

A 6-0, 170-pound forward from Alexandria, Va., Miezan came off the bench to deliver his hat trick, scoring his first career goal in the opening half and delivering two more in the second half. The pair of Miezan and senior Zach Crandall gave Longwood a dangerous attack throughout, launching nine of Longwood's 22 shots with a combined six on target.

"I felt delighted," Miezan said of his hat trick. "Coach told me to go out there and make a run. I just tried to put it in the back of the net whenever my teammates set me up with an opportunity. Although this was my first actual game, I tried to take the exhibition games just as serious as this game, so this game really didn't have a different feel to me coming in."

Miezan opened the scoring in the 38th minute of the game off a set piece after Finnlay Wyatt sent a corner into the box and the redshirt-freshman was there to punch the ball past VMI goalkeeper Alex Guerra and give Longwood a 1-0 lead.

Crandall scored the game-winner 11 minutes into the second half, taking on two Keydet defenders and finishing with an unassisted goal into the far back post to put the Lancers up 2-0.

After VMI cut the Longwood lead to 2-1 midway through the second half off a goal from Campbell Wood, Miezan struck two more times back-to-back goals just over one minute apart. The first came off a cross from Zach Corcoran, while the second came off a creative play assisted from Michael Margulis.

The veteran starting backfield contingent of Michael Durr, Marten Pajunurm and Alex Waite was strong along the backline for the Lancers, holding the Keydets to just eight shots on the night, five on goal to go along with two corner kicks. Carpenter completed the performance with a four save effort, stopping all but one shot he faced on the night.

Longwood will look to open the season 2-0 next week with a trip to UNC Greensboro. Kickoff against the Spartans is set for 7 p.m.

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