Eagles Stumble Against Dukes, 3-1

Tuesday, October 15

Statesboro

7 PM

Georgia Southern University

5-3-3, 1-2-1

James Madison

6-1-5, 2-0-2

James Madison

Ga. Southern

10/15/2024 9:59:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Statesboro, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern men's soccer team was defeated 3-1 by James Madison (6-1-5, 2-0-2 SBC) on Tuesday, October 15th.

The Dukes came out swinging early, tallying three shots in the opening minutes with Nate Martinez making a sliding save early on to keep the match scoreless. However, an eighth minute corner kick from Yanis Lelin curled near the goal line, but unfortunately skipped from Martinez's hands to put James Madison up 1-0.

After each team defenses settled in, Harvey Sarajian once again tried to make moves in the offensive half against a few Dukes where he poked a pass to Ryan Holmes in the 29th minute. Holmes found some open space and fired a grounding shot just past the box that hit the back corner to even the match up. For Holmes, it's his tenth goal of the season which is second in the Sun Belt.

The Dukes entered the half even with the Eagles, but held an 8-3 shots advantage while keeping the Eagles off the corner flag. The second half saw the first 20 minutes with teams bouncing back between possessions, but Kevin Larsson fired off a shot in the 65th minute that put the Dukes back on top. A minute later, a penalty opportunity from Larsson would not go astray as he put up a brace on the night and sealed the match. Although the Eagles would put on four more shots and corner kicks the remainder of the match, the finals result stayed at 3-1.

The Dukes had 12 shots on the clear-skied evening with six on goal to the Eagles eight total and two on target. Martinez made three saves between the sticks and each team had an even dozen fouls. There were no cards for an Eagles player for the first time since October 27th of last season.

The Eagles (5-3-3, 1-2-1 SBC) continue their home stand against Georgia State as part of a doubleheader on Friday, October 18th. The match will begin approximately at 7:30 PM as it will follow both the women's match at 5 PM and a short ceremony honoring Bo Pitts.