Statesboro, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern men's soccer team (4-0-3, 0-0-1 SBC) defeated the College of Charleston Cougars (7-2, 2-0 CAA) by a score of 2-1 at Bo Pitts Field Tuesday night (September 24th).

The opening 45 minutes saw Charleston prove why they were previously ranked #23 in the country in last week's rankings. The Cougars amassed six shots and corner kicks in the opening frame, as well as only committing one fouls to the Eagles' seven. Meanwhile, Georgia Southern only took two shots and the same amount of corner kick opportunities to enter the locker rooms still deadlocked. 

Georgia Southern entered out the second half strong as they collected five shots to just one for the Cougars in the opening 22 minutes of the final 45. However, in the 70th minute, Julien Seher found space on the run on the left corner of the box and made a tight pass to  a running Harvey Sarajian who took a touch to get separation from his defender and fire a side netter to put the Eagles up 1-0. 

Of course, the Cougars would never go down that easily. After an Eagle foul just outside the box five minutes later, Charleston's Leonardo D'Ambrosio stepped up to the ball and delivered a screamer that hit the top crossbar and bounced down into the goal to even up the match. 

While most would think the match would settle, the Eagles kicked their offense into high gear. Just under two minutes later, Sarajian lined up for a long throw into the box on the right corner in the Eagles attacking third. Luckily for him, they finally executed as Ryan Holmes flicked it with his noggin past the Cougar keeper for the game winner. For Holmes, it's now his sixth goal in seven matches. 

The Eagles' defense stepped up to stand their ground as Nate Martinez made his only save of the night in the most crucial time in 81st minute on a header from Charleston's Ben Bagshaw. After surviving another two Cougars' corner kicks in the final minute, the final whistle blew.The Eagles outshot the Cougars 10-9, with four of them being on target for the home team and only two for Charleston. The Cougars also took10 corners to just the Eagles four and Southern had 11 fould to the opponent's seven. 

The win marks the fourth on the season and still have a zero in the loss column through seven matches, solidifying 2024 as the best start in program history. Additionally, coming into the match, Georgia Southern's RPI stood at 51 while the Cougars were close ahead at 44. 

"It was our first win in three games, so it's nice to get back to winning ways," says head coach Lee Squires. "It shows the team that when we do dig in and have quality attacks to win us some games and we're just pleased to have that one in the bank because that Charleston team is really good. Huge respect to them because they're well-coached and they're on a roll right now, so to get that win is pretty special."

After the win, the Eagles stay at home as the #10 team in the country comes to town in Sun Belt opponent James Madison. Kickoff on Saturday, September 28th, is set for 7 PM at Bo Pitts Field.