STATESBORO – Heading into Saturday's home game against North Florida, the Georgia Southern men's soccer team was looking for some momentum after a couple heart-breaking losses to South Carolina and Duke, sandwiched around a 2-1 win over in-state rival Mercer. The Eagles got a big confidence boost Saturday night at Eagle Field as they defeated the Ospreys 2-0 behind goals from Nick Wells and Christian Duncan as well as solid play from the defense.

Georgia Southern started four true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen along with one sophomore, but the young Eagles never backed down as they went up against a veteran lineup for UNF that featured six seniors and three juniors. The young Eagles jumped all over the Ospreys from the outset, and it quickly paid off in the 12^th minute as Wells scored his first goal of the season off a feed from Josh Bronstorph. The Ospreys seemed content to sit back for most of the game while working to produce open looks, but the GS defense was able to shut down attempt after attempt all night long.

Late in the second half, David Rhoades slipped past the UNF defense but his shot was saved and knocked away by Tord Pederson. However, the ball escaped Pederson's grasp and rolled to the boot of a waiting Christian Duncan who deftly struck the ball into the back of the net, giving Georgia Southern some needed breathing room. From there, it was all up to the Eagles' backrow as the Ospreys began to desperately attack with the clock winding down. Despite the late barrage of shots from UNF, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Torgeir Fjaer stood strong and made eight saves en route to recording his first clean sheet of his young career while the rest of the defense, highlighted by freshmen Justin Little, Rasmus Juul and Trei Schwartz as well as Wells, cleared out crosses and serves left and right to preserve the win.

MATCH FACTS
North Florida (4-3-1) - 0
Georgia Southern (4-4-1) – 2

SCORING SUMMARY
12' – GS – Nick Wells (1) took a serve from Josh Bronstorph and dribbled into the box, striking the ball into the back of the net.
84' – GS – Christian Duncan (1) collected a saved ball off a David Rhoades shot and put it past the keeper.

NOTES
- The 2-0 win marks the first win at Eagle Field for head coach John Murphy. Under Murphy, the Eagles are now 1-0-1 at home, including an earlier 1-1, double-overtime draw with James Madison.
- The 2-0 win Saturday night was the first shutout of the year for the Eagles. The last time GS recorded a clean sheet was a 1-0 result on October 30, 2015 in a conference match on the road at NJIT.
- The win over the Ospreys gives Georgia Southern a 6-5-1 record over UNF and breaks a streak of two games won by UNF.
- The win by GS over UNF is the first home win in the series for the Eagles since September 17, 2007 when GS won 1-0.
- Redshirt freshman Torgeir Fjaer recorded his first career clean sheet Saturday night.

QUOTE FROM COACH JOHN MURPHY
"We started very well because we have a lot of respect for North Florida. They're a very good team that possesses the ball very well and we knew it would be very difficult to play them," said Murphy. "But we certainly got after them and we made a real effort to get that clean sheet, we hadn't gotten one so far this season and it really took a full team effort to get that done tonight and I think our attacking came off the back of some very good defending.

"We're going 16, 17, 18 deep with our roster right now and the quality is coming out. I'm very pleased about that because it has given some younger guys some opportunities and they have really made the most of it.

"I think at home you need to take care of the results. North Florida was an NCAA Tournament team last year and the coach has been there for six years and he has a very settled and veteran group. Our coaching staff has been in place for six weeks. All respect to North Florida, but we've been together for a really short amount of time, we're still getting to know each other and I don't think we have played our best soccer yet, so we still have a ways to go. But, the fact that we bounced back from the losses at Duke and South Carolina is great."

NEXT UP
Georgia Southern will next host Campbell on Tuesday, Sept. 27 in a 7 p.m. contest that will be featured on ESPN3.

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