FARMVILLE, Va. — Simao Coelho scored four goals in a 22-minute span in the first half as the Longwood men's soccer team cruised to an 8-2 Big South Conference victory over USC Upstate at Longwood Athletics Complex Friday.
Coelho scored in the 14th, 16th, 31st and 36th minutes in the first half, becoming the the sixth Lancers' player to score four times in a match. The eight goals also marked Longwood's Division-I high as well as the sixth most in school history.
"The big takeaway is that this team's set forth some standards that they wanted to keep throughout the year," said Longwood head coach Paul Gilbert. "A couple of those standards would be not to lose at home and that we're process oriented. We're driven by the process, no matter if we're playing at UVA, no matter if we're playing a home Big South match, no matter if we're playing a preseason match against a junior college or an NAIA team. We want to have the same process, the same energy, the same expectations for every opponent in every venue we go to.
"For me, I thought they did that today. We as a staff really challenged them in the pregame to throw our best knockout punch right away," Gilbert continued. "I'm not sure I saw five goals in the first half, but for me, it was an 'aha' moment to see the players really take hold of the game themselves without the coaching staff having to dictate or joystick, if you will. I thought the decisions they made, and the energy they brought, and then to finish, was exceptional."
With the win, Longwood (3-3-2, 2-0-0) earned victories in its first two conference matches for the first time in the Division-I program history.
Coelho's tallies helped stake the Lancers to a 5-0 halftime lead, and they buried three more in the second, including freshman forward Brando Bedolla's first two collegiate goals, both assisted by Ezrah Serralde.
Desmond Adeyemi put away his first goal of the season on a feed from Paul Espinoza in the 85th minute after USC Upstate (1-9-0, 0-2-0) crept to within 7-2 on goals from Dario Stadler and Dznen Cerimagic in the 73rd and 82nd minutes, respectively.
In all, four players scored goals and 10 had at least one point in the rout. Longwood fired 21 shots and 10 on goal on the way to leaving little doubt in the outcome.
But it was all Coelho early. After reigning Big South Offensive Player of the Week Ethan Stevenson opened the scoring in the eighth minute from Mateo Nance, Coelho put home the rebound of a Jesus Macaya shot to make it 2-0.
Coelho pushed it to 3-0 when received a pass from Nance and slipped the pall under goalkeeper Kristian Eek (two saves) after a series of step-over moves.
Anthony Vargas found Coelho with a ball over top of the defense to make it 4-0 before Stevenson set up Coelho for the fifth goal with an exquisite pass to go into the halftime break up, 5-0.
"I'm super happy to score eight goals," Gilbert said. "I'm super happy about the energy that the came and gave, or the subs in the second half. That's a tough spot to be in. You're up five-nil, and you've just subbed the majority of the team out. And what is your motivation? What is driving you? I thought those guys, they were driven and hungry to score more goals. Obviously I would like to not give up two goals at the end, but, again, I recognize that this is a difficult situation. We're able get some guys minutes that haven't gotten minutes this year. And so for me, all's well. No red cards, no injuries to report. So it was a good night."
The Lancers are back in action Tuesday, hosting Campbell at 7 p.m.
