STATESBORO, Ga. - Senior
Blake Wilson's goal in the 55th minute was the difference on Friday afternoon as Georgia Southern men's soccer picked up a 1-0 victory over visiting Houston Baptist at Eagle Field in Statesboro.
The game was the only one played of this weekend's scheduled Coastal Empire Challenge, due to the onset of Hurricane Irma. The Eagles (2-3) will now travel with the other Georgia Southern fall sports relocating to Birmingham, Ala., as the campus has been closed for the next five days with the storm. Houston Baptist (1-2) will head north to Boiling Springs, N.C., to take on Gardner-Webb on Sunday in a relocation of a game originally scheduled for Sunday in the Challenge.
A very tight first half saw each team have chances to get on the board first. Houston Baptist's Josue Palomino had a shot in the 15th minute that was saved by Eagle goalkeeper
Robert Flott. Huskies' goalkeeper Jorge Cabrera, making his first start of the season, made five first-half saves, but the best chance for the Eagles to score came in the 38th minute as
Javier Carbonell unleashed a shot from the right side that hit the crossbar.
Blake Wilson got onto the rebound but his follow up attempt was blocked by the Houston Baptist defense.
Halftime saw the home team with a 10-7 edge in shots.
The Eagles opened up the second half with a flurry of shots in a four-minute span as both Wilson and Carbonell forced saves from Cabrera by the 53rd minute. The pair would finally connect on the game's only goal in the 55th minute as Carbonell slotted a through ball into the box to the sprinting Wilson, who dribbled left past the keeper and finished into an open net for the 1-0 advantage. The goal was Wilson's second of the season and 10th of his career for Georgia Southern.
Eagles would pick up the clean sheet by limiting the Huskies to just one shot on goal the rest of the way - a long-range shot by Dominick Faletto that was picked off by Flott. The shutout win was the first of the season for the Eagles, and the first clean sheet for Flott in his collegiate career.
"I thought we had a lot of the ball," Head Coach John Murphy said. "It's hard when you have so much of the ball and create some clear chances. I thought their goalkeeper pulled off a couple of really good saves. There were times when the connections just weren't there. I think we have to get the balance right of being demanding of each other, but also being patient with each other."
Georgia Southern finished the match with a 17-12 edge in shots. Cabrera made nine saves in net for the Huskies, while Flott made two saves for the Eagles. Georgia Southern held an 8-5 edge in corner kicks and the Eagles were whistled for offsides twice on the afternoon, while Houston Baptist was offsides once. Fouls were nine against the Eagles and five against the Huskies.
"We were resolute, we were strong," Murphy said. "We scored the goal when we needed to and we kept a clean sheet. There's a lot of positives to take from it. I'm happy with the back line and Robert for getting the clean sheet, which is important to us. We're trying to be a little more cohesive as a group defensively, which is not easy when you're so expansive in the attack. I think our development as a team needs to continue."
The Eagles are next scheduled to open up Sun Belt Conference play against Coastal Carolina on Saturday, September 16th, at 7:00 p.m. at Eagle Field. Stay in touch with any changes to GS schedules by following @GSAthletics on Twitter and checking in at GSEagles.com.
