Longwood University's men's soccer team continued to struggle this past week losing two matches to George Washington University and James Madison University. The match against George Washington was held on Wednesday, Sept. 8 at the Athletics Complex in Farmville. The team dropped the decision by a score of 4-2 to the visiting Colonials (Atlantic 10 Conference). Senior Harvey Headley and sophomore Vinnie Llana each scored a goal in the first half. The Colonials scored the first two goals before the pair of Longwood goals tied the match. George Washington would score one more goal in the first half and add an insurance goal in the second half.
Longwood pressured early in the first half, drawing five corner kicks in the first five minutes of the match but could only get off one shot during that span. George Washington scored the first goal in the 11th minute on a shot by Mike Burke from 40 yards out on the left side of the field that deflected off the post and into the goal. The Colonials added to their lead in the 25th minute when Seth Rudolph hit a header off a cross from Mattia Melillo to push the lead to 2-0. The Lancers answered in the 26th minute when Llana scored on a penalty kick that cut the deficit to one goal. Headley scored in the 34th minute off a long pass from freshman left-back Patrick Bain. The match would not stay tied for long as Jeff Eisenbud collected a loose ball in front of the net after a deflected free kick and scored to put GWU ahead 3-2 in the 38th minute.
George Washington added an insurance goal in the 61st minute on a Burke goal from six yards out.
Sophomore goalkeeper Ben Eanes played in goal in the first half and allowed three goals. Junior Joel Helmick played in goal in the second half and allowed one goal with one save. Jake Davis recorded three saves in 90 minutes for the Colonials.
Longwood was led by Headley and Llana with one goal each while Bain added an assist. George Washington was led by Burke with two goals. Longwood outshot George Washington 13-10 and had an 11-1 advantage on corners.
"Words can't express the disappointment," said Head Coach Jon Atkinson. "We let a George Washington team off the hook and we've only got ourselves to blame. This young team has to start maturing rapidly. The proper communication has to be expressed. Communication helps synergize a team. Mistakes happened which allowed us to get behind and it's tough to get traction and go forward again after that. It's the stuff off the ball that's important. We need to be working off the ball defensively. Ball watching is a problem that has cost us game after game after game."
The men's team then fell 3-0 at JMU of the CAA on Sunday afternoon in Harrisonburg. CJ Sapong of the Dukes recorded three goals, scoring on a pair of headers and a penalty kick.
Longwood had three attempts in the first 17 minutes, but the first by Llana was blocked and the second by sophomore Adel Sarras missed the mark. Freshman Nick Surkamp took the only shot on goal for the Lancers in the 17th minute that was saved by JMU's Ken Manahan. James Madison (4-0) outshot the Lancers 9-3 in the first half and had a 5-1 advantage on corner kicks, but the Lancers went in to halftime tied at 0-0.
James Madison broke the game open in the 55th minute with a Sapong header off a free kick from Christian McLaughlin. He added his second goal of the match in the 68th minute on a header off a corner kick from Patrick Innes. His third goal came on a penalty kick in the 81st minute to put the Dukes ahead 3-0. JMU outshot Longwood 21-4 in the match and had a 9-1 advantage in corner kicks.
The Lancers now stand 0-4 on the year. Their next match is today as they travel to Towson, Maryland, to take on Towson University of the CAA at 4 p.m. (Information from JMU math courtesy of longwoodlancers.com)