Box Score

STATESBORO, GA. – Georgia Southern Men's Soccer opened SoCon play on Sunday afternoon with a 2-1 loss to Davidson. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute, but 17 seconds later, Davidson equalized. The visitors pushed another goal past in the 53rd minute to take the points.

Georgia Southern falls to 4-5-0 overall on the season and 0-1-0 in league play. Davidson improves to 5-3-1 on the campaign and 1-1-0 in the SoCon.

"I didn't think we executed very well in the final third today," said Head Coach Kevin Kennedy. "We created some chances, but our finishing was poor. I was very disappointed that we got a goal and we couldn't hold a lead for more than 17 seconds. We have to have a greater commitment to defending, and obviously Davidson was committed to getting a result today."

Witt Carlisle put GSU up 1-0 after just 6:18 of match time. Jeremy Rector earned the assist by centering a ball to Carlisle who had an empty net for his third goal of the season.

Davidson, however, needed just 17 seconds to equalizer on a nifty back-heel goal from Alex Feliciano. Chris Pettiglio crossed the ball on the ground into traffic where Feliciano was able to apply the shot for the goal to level the teams at 1-1.

Georgia Southern's defense conceded a penalty late in the first half. A stunning save by goalkeeper Neal Bates denied the attempt and kept the scoreline level at 1-1 with just two minutes left in the first half.

After the intermission, Davidson went back on the attack, taking the lead, 2-1 in the 53rd minute. Valeriy Sviderskiy took a shot which was saved by Bates. The rebound, however, came back to Sviderskiy who scored on the second chance for his fifth goal of the season.

Sunday's game was the inaugural GATA Game at which all Georgia Southern Student-Athletes were invited to support their fellow Eagles. The event was a success as a new attendance record was set at Eagle Field with 953 fans at the match.

"The fans were tremendous today," added Kennedy. "The GATA Game program is a great initiative by our administration; I'm just disappointed we couldn't match the support we had today."

The Eagles were out-shot 18-14 while the Wildcats held an 11-4 advantage in shots on goal. After both teams went without a corner kick in the first half, Georgia Southern won the corner battle 6-3 in the second half.

Next up for the Eagles is another home game with Wofford making the trip to Statesboro next Saturday evening at 7 p.m. That contest can be seen live at GS All-Access from GSEagles.com.

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.