Georgia Southern University Athletics

STATESBORO, Ga. - Sophomore Gonzalo Talavera's rocket shot with six seconds remaining in regulation propelled the Georgia Southern men's soccer team to the top of the Sun Belt Conference standings with the Eagles' 1-0 victory over visiting Appalachian State on Saturday evening at Eagle Field.

Georgia Southern (6-5-3, 2-0-1 SBC) now sits alone atop the league standings with seven points, while Appalachian State (7-5-3, 1-1-1 SBC) remains in third place with four points. The Eagles' final regular season match comes Friday at Coastal Carolina.

Appalachian State and Georgia Southern met twice last season and 200 minutes of action between the two teams produced one lone goal. The 2018 edition lacked a goal through 89 minutes and looked destined for overtime. The Eagles had a late surge with a half-minute remaining. Samuel Mayer played a ball into the box, that deflected to the feet of Aldair Cortes. Cortes laid the ball off back to the top of the box for Talavera, whose shot blistered the upper right corner of the net with just six ticks remaining on the clock.

The Mountaineers sent a ball towards goal on the restart but it sailed harmlessly out and the Eagles celebrated the Sun Belt win, as well as Senior Night in Georgia Southern's final home regular season match of 2018.

"It's kind of surreal when you score with six seconds left in a soccer game," Georgia Southern Head Coach John Murphy said. "It's not basketball or football - six seconds in soccer is nothing, the game's basically over. The fact that we took a gamble and finally got some quality in the box, and had enough shape in behind it to get the final shot off was good. 

"I thought the performance was workmanlike, the quality wasn't there. I have a lot of respect for Appalachian State, they have a very good team, and probably deserved to get out of here with something. It's tough to lose a game like that. But we took our chance and made the most of it. Jokull [Blaengsson] had a good game in goal for us, they had a couple of good chances early on. He steadied the ship a little bit. We're still a young team, and overall you have to be happy with a home win in the Sun Belt."

The Eagles finished the match with a 10-5 edge in shots over the Mountaineers. Blaengsson had a pair of saves in net for Georgia Southern, as did Jake Chasteen for Appalachian State. Each team had four corner kicks and three offsides on the night, and each team was whistled for eight fouls.

Prior to the match, the Eagles celebrated senior day, honoring their seven seniors - manager John Williams, forward Javier Carbonell, midfielders Sebastian Gregersen, Luis Caraballo and Sam Choi, goalkeeper Torgeir Fjaer and assistant coach Emil Laursen. 

Georgia Southern will get the opportunity to play at least once more at Eagle Field in 2018 when the school hosts the Sun Belt Conference Championships from November 7-11. Click here for ticket information.