Despite a late goal to get back into contention, a 2-0 deficit was too much to overcome as the VMI men’s soccer team fell by a 2-1 score to league opponent Mercer Tuesday evening at Patchin Field.
The Bears (8-5, 3-2) went up early with a goal in the seventh minute when Kobe Perez took an assist from Will Bagrou and got it past VMI keeper Alex Guerra, who left his box to try to deny the threat.
Both teams battled equally the remainder of the half and most of the second half until Bagrou got behind the VMI defenders for an insurance goal that proved to be the game-winning score at the 82:05 mark.
VMI’s Sam Moffatt immediately responded, scoring a goal just one minute later by using trickery to get around two Bear defenders in the left side of the box and found an open shot into the lower right corner of the net just beyond the reach of Mercer goalie Jeremy Booth.
“I give our guys a lot of credit for fighting back and refusing to fold,” said VMI head coach Jon Freeman. “That first goal woke us up and we started to play with more energy and urgency. We had opportunities to score and came very close on several occasions, but couldn’t get any in. You have to play for a full 90 minutes and unfortunately Mercer capitalized with two goals when we lost focus.
“It was a great individual effort by Sam to go and get that goal for us,” Freeman said. “I’m proud that we battled and continued to show fight to finish the game.”
The Keydets had several scoring opportunities denied, including an Andrew Starnes shot from beyond the 18 in the first half that hit thecrossbar. Other shots sailed just wide of the net or into the arms of a diving Booth, who registered four saves during the match.
Mercer outshot the Keydets by a reasonable 21-13 margin and had eight corner kicks to VMI’s four. Guerra recorded seven saves throughout the game for VMI.
VMI returns to SoCon action Saturday with a 2 p.m. tilt against East Tennessee State at Patchin Field.
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