Men’s Soccer Closes Regular Season with 2-1 Win at JMU

Sunday, November 3

Harrisonburg, Va.

1 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

6-9-1

James Madison

8-9-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Georgia Southern	1	1	2
James Madison	1	0	1

11/3/2013 4:06:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, VA. – Georgia Southern Men's Soccer closed the 2013 regular season on a high note, taking the team's second-straight win, a 2-1 victory at James Madison. The Eagles close a week that included a win over No. 14 Furman on Tuesday and enter the SoCon Tournament next weekend at UNCG with wins in four of their last five contests.

"We really didn't play very well early, but giving up the goal woke us up," said Head Coach Kevin Kennedy. "The guys responded immediately and got the goal back. I'm happy that we came out after halftime and got the go-ahead goal. Neal Bates had another great game in goal, especially with the penalty save late."

JMU went 1-0 up on 36 minutes when Josh Grant scored his seventh goal of the season from 10 yards out.

The Eagles responded immediately, scoring in the 39th minute when captain Hunter Norton got his sixth goal of the season. Hunter was fed by a through ball into the box by brother Reed Norton and finished from 12 yards out to put the Eagles back on level terms.

Just 11 minutes after the intermission, Jeremy Rector put the Eagles 2-1 up in the 56th minute. Rector volleyed a failed clearance from 17 yards into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.

Neal Bates tallied seven saves on 16 total shots from James Madison to close the regular season. Bates made a penalty save in the 65th minute that preserved the 2-1 advantage. The Eagle netminder guessed correctly and made the save.

With 102 total saves this season, Bates ranks ninth in single-season saves at Georgia Southern with the highest total since 2001. For his career, Bates ranks seventh all-time at GSU with 188 saves.

Next up for the Eagles is the 2013 SoCon Tournament. The Eagles enter the tournament as the No. 6 seed and face UNCG on Saturday night at 7 p.m.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and witter.com/GSAthletics, and its "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.