BUIES CREEK, N.C. – A six-save effort from Longwood senior goalkeeper
Carl Carpenter led a Longwood backline that held the Campbell offense in check, as the Lancers opened Big South play with a 2-1 road victory Sunday night at the Eakes Athletic Complex.
Carpenter and the Longwood defense, consisting of
Michael Durr,
Marten Pajunurm,
Alex Waite and
Chad Kozoyed, was able to hold a Campbell offensive attack that came into the night second in the Big South this season with 2.00 goals per game. The leader of that attack Bradley Farias – the Big South's leading goal scorer with eight goals this season and back-to-back Big South Attacker of the Week– was held to five shots and just two on target.
Longwood's second straight victory over the Camels (4-4-0, 0-1-0 BSC) in a two-year span ends Campbell's four-game winning streak it had coming into Sunday's contest and the three points vaults the Lancers (4-3-0, 1-0-0 BSC) atop the league standings along with Coastal Carolina, Radford and Winthrop.
"We had to fight all the way to the end having conceded a late goal, but the lads rode it out to get an important conference win on the road," said Longwood head coach
Jon Atkinson. "We had as good a first half as I've seen this season from an appetite and quality standpoint. The second half was more even, but we can sleep better knowing three points are in the bag."
For Carpenter, the victory gives him his third of the season, which is a career-best mark for the Charlottesville, Va., product. The senior was spectacular in the game, matching his season-best effort with a six-save performance.
Pajunurm was not just strong on the back end, but along with
Dan Campos provided the tallies in a first half where the Lancers carried the pace of play to the tune of a 9-6 advantage in shots for the half. The result was a 2-0 lead for the Lancers headed to the locker room.
The strike from Campos in the 22nd minute came on a free kick just outside the 18-yard box. He sent a shot to the left of a five-man Campbell wall and past the diving Matthew Mozynski into the lower left corner for his first tally of the season.
Pajunurm, a product of Rapla, Estonia, provided the game-winning goal with his first career marker in the 40th minute, sending a shot from the center of the box into the lower right of the net to give the Lancers a 2-0 advantage.
A Seth Jones goal in the 82nd minute for Campbell ended Longwood's shutout bid, as he received a pass in the center of the box and made no mistake for his third goal of the season.
The Lancers will look to keep the momentum rolling, as the squad returns to the Athletics Complex Thursday, Oct. 1 for a non-conference game against Portland. The game is set for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
#GoWood
