Late Goal Hands Men’s Soccer a 1-0 Loss at Mercer

Sunday, September 15

Macon, Ga.

7 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

2-3

Mercer

1-4

Georgia Southern

Mercer

9/15/2013 9:33:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

10-man Eagle squad surrenders 87th minute goal to close Mercer Tournament

MACON, Ga. - A late goal from Ehjayson Henry slips the Mercer Bears past the Georgia Southern Eagles in the finale of the Mercer Tournament on Sunday night in Macon, Ga.

"We're obviously disappointed," said Head Coach Kevin Kennedy. "It is difficult to play 40 minutes a man down, but we were doing a good job of it until they scored. We've got to focus on putting together a complete 90 minutes of soccer every time we play."

The Eagles nearly forced overtime after playing down a man for most of the second half before Henry wrangled control of the ball from a Georgia Southern (2-4) defender in the 87th minute. He lifted a shot into the upper left corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season and the game winner.

After giving up the goal, the Eagles offense went on the attack and tried to find the equalizer. Witt Carlisle put a shot on goal in the 88th minute but the Bears' defense deflected the shot. Just seconds later Hunter Norton corralled the rebound and put a second shot on goal, but this time Greg Ranjitsingh made the stop in net to preserve the win.

Mercer (2-4) outshot the Eagles 23-8 in the game and 14-5 in the second half. The Bears also put pressure on the GSU defense with a 13 corner kicks. Goalie Neal Bates kept Mercer off the board for most of the match and made a season-high 11 saves in the cage on Sunday night. He has allowed one goal or less now in his last four matches.

Henry was one of three members of Brad Ruzzo's Mercer squad with four shots on the day. Two other Bears also tallied three shots. Jeremy Rector was the only Eagle to post multiple shots and finished with two.

With a third place finish in the Mercer Tournament, Eagles Neal Bates and Josh Ward earned places on the All-Tounament Team.

Kevin Kennedy's men's soccer squad will be back in action next weekend in Asheville, N.C. The Eagles will face Radford on Friday and UNC Asheville on Sunday.

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.