Coach Kennedy Interview | Raji Interview

Statesboro, Ga. – The No. 3 seed Eagles advanced to the Sun Belt Conference Final after defeating Georgia State 2-1 Friday night from Eagle Field on the campus of Georgia Southern University.  With the win, the Eagles avenge a regular season finale loss to the Panthers just six days ago, and will now face No. 1 seed Hartwick College in the conference final Sunday at 1 p.m.

In the 6th minute, Georgia State's Rashid Alarape sent a cross in to the box to a waiting Amiri Abraham who fired a shot on goal from just outside the six yard box.  Georgia Southern keeper Jack Falle saved it, but the deflection gave Abraham a second chance, and he found the back of the net to make it 1-0 in favor of the Panthers. 

Just 9 minutes later, Georgia Southern found the equalizer to knot the score at 1-1.  In the 15th minute, Ethan LaPan brought the ball up the right side and sent a long pass across the field to Eric Dinka outside the 18 yard box.  Dinka, having space, dribbled in to the middle of the 18 where he struck true on a ball into the right corner for his 5th tally on the season.      

In the first half, the Eagles were outshot by the Panthers 10-7.  The Panthers placed 5 shots on goal while the Eagles placed 2 shots on target.  Falle collected 4 saves over the first 45 minutes of play.

The second half opened with plenty of intensity as the up-tempo pace of the game carried over from the first half.  Although the Panthers controlled possession early on, both teams had scoring opportunities.  

In the 71st minute, Adam Abdellaoui crossed a ball in to Emmanuel Raji who one timed it near post from inside the 6 yard box to make it 2-0 in favor of the Eagles.  The goal, Raji's 4th of the season, resulted from a build up at midfield on an Eagle counterattack and proved to be the game winner.

The Eagles held the Georgia State Panthers to just one shot on goal in the 2nd half.  In all, Falle had 5 saves on the night, while the Eagle offense was able to add 4 shots on goal during the 2nd stanza.  Corner kicks were one-sided as the Panthers had 8 opportunities compared with just 1 for the Eagles. 

The Eagles advance to 8-8-0 overall  and will face Hartwick College Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Sun Belt Conference Final at Eagle Field.  In their previous meeting, the Eagles defeated the Hartwick Hawks 2-0 behind Nick Wells and Raji Emmanuel who each scored in the contest.  Live video and stats will be available at sunbeltsports.org   

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