EMU men fall to Virginia Wesleyan: The Royals had their chances against last year’s ODAC champion Virginia Wesleyan, but an upset was not to be as the men lost 4-1 on the road Saturday night. Despite holding a solid edge in corner kick attempts, EMU came up short and was out-shot by their hosts as their record evens out at 2-2-2 on the season.
The soccer men earned a pair of corner kicks in the first 15 minutes, but had a header by Joao Downs (Limon, Costa Rica/Colegio de Limon Diurno) go high and an attempt from David Hooley (Bluffton, Ohio/Bluffton) saved. The game stayed scoreless until the Marlins struck in the 26th minute to take a 1-0 lead.
VWC was whistled for a yellow card less than a minute before halftime, but a resulting attempt from Juan Luna(Mount Jackson, Va./Stonewall Jackson) bounced out off the crossbar, leaving the home team with the lead at the break.
The Marlins built a little breathing room in the 54th minute with their second goal. Senior Mark Mast(Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) answered quickly for EMU, scoring an unassisted goal to cut the score to 2-1.
The ray of hope was short-lived, however, as Virginia Wesleyan fired back with two more goals to build an unsurmountable lead.
Eastern Mennonite faced a 15-8 deficit in shots, including 8-4 on goal. Andrew Yoder (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) played all 90 minutes in goal and made four saves. Mast scored the men’s lone tally and no one had more than one shot on goal. Despite the shot differential, EMU had a 7-1 edge in corner kicks.
After their ODAC opener, the Royals step back out of conference play on Wednesday, hosting Gettysburg College at 7:00pm in Harrisonburg.
Washington and Lee power past EMU women: After a dramatic three-game stretch, the EMU soccer women just ran on out juice by the second half of Saturday’s ODAC opener at Washington & Lee. The Royals trailed just 1-0 at the intermission before eventually falling 7-0 to the Generals in Lexington.
Eastern Mennonite entered the contest on the heels of three straight double overtime games. Given that they only had two subs coming off the bench for today’s game left the women stretched even thinner.
Washington & Lee, meanwhile, came in with a deep roster full of returners who played in last year’s ODAC Championship game. The Generals fired off 10 shots in the first half, but Becca Borg (Gig Harbor, Wash./Peninsula) picked out three saves, and the defensive line added a team save to keep things scoreless. W&L finally broke onto the scoreboard in the 37th minute.
The start of the second half belonged to the home team as they attacked the net and built up to their final margin of victory with six more scores.
Borg finished with six saves as the Generals had a 22-0 control of the shots to end EMU’s three-game unbeaten streak.
The Royals, now 2-3-1, step back out of conference play for the final time this season on Tuesday when they head to Ferrum. Game time with the Panthers is 7:00pm.
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