LYNCHBURG, Va. – For a second straight match, the Longwood men's soccer team locked down on the road defensively, and for the second straight match, the Lancers used a second-half goal to earn a narrow 1-0 win.
After blanking Gardner-Webb on Saturday, Longwood (5-7-2) shut down Liberty on Tuesday night, and
Tosin Ayokunle's 73
rd minute goal proved the difference, giving Longwood the 1-0 victory to wrap up a three-game road swing.
Ayokunle's second game winner of the season, coupled with a stalwart performance by the Longwood back line of
Dan Ahrens,
Jonas Kalchner,
Paul Caspar and
Andrew Short along with a stellar effort by
Lucas Muller in goal, gave Longwood its first road win at Liberty (6-7).
"Very pleased with the effort from the lads, that's back to back wins on the road against a top team, so you have to be happy right?" said head coach
Jon Atkinson. "The chemistry of the team, I believe, is the X factor right now. I wouldn't say we are putting a great 90 minutes of football together, and I'd like us to stitch together longer periods of play where we show authority on the ball as I know we are capable and have shown at times, but overall delighted for the boys. On to Saturday."
Following a scoreless first half, the Lancer defense withstood a second half surge from Liberty (6-7) that saw the Flames fire off the first six shots of the second half. Muller made a trio of huge saves and finished with a season-high four saves on the night.
While the defense kept Liberty out of the net, the Lance offense found space to push forward with less than 20 minutes left to play.
Ander Etxaniz chipped a wonderful ball forward inside the box, and
Kidus Assefa ripped a shot that was blocked by a Liberty defender. Ayokunle was the first to the rebound and rifled home a shot from 13 yards out for his third goal of the season.
The Lancer defense did the dirty work necessary from that point on, limiting Liberty to one shot over the final 17 minutes to earn the team's third shutout of the season.
Longwood heads back home to dive back into conference play with a matchup against Presbyterian College on Saturday. It will be senior day, and kickoff is set for 2 p.m. The match will be aired on ESPN+.
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