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Friday, July 25, 2025

Men's Soccer Continues String of Impressive Performances

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Men's Soccer Continues String of Impressive Performances

The Longwood Lancers men's soccer squad continued to impress on Saturday night defeating the visiting University of Richmond Spiders 3-1. The game was held at the Athletics Complex in Farmville. The Spiders (1-7-1, of the Atlantic 10 Conference) were no match for freshman Zach Crandall and junior Niels van Pelt who accounted for all three Lancer goals. The victory against Richmond was the second straight win for the men's team, and their fourth in their last five matches.

"It was very nice to continue the winning feeling with some good individual performances, notably from Zach Crandall and Niels," said head coach Jon Atkinson on longwoodlancers.com. "We were made to work all the way by a capable Richmond unit, but we dug deep when we had to. I was disappointed to concede tonight. I hoped we could have played cleaner, but we did enough tonight, and I am happy for the players."

  

Crandall got things started in the 32nd minute when he received a pass from van Pelt. Crandall charged from 40 yards out to beat his defenders and the Spider goalkeeper before sending the ball home. Longwood scored again in the 40th minute after a corner kick from senior Chris Saul bounced off of Shane Johnson and into van Pelt's path in the box. Van Pelt reared back and fired to give the Lancers the 2-0 advantage. The Spiders trimmed the lead to one in the 51st minute when Timmy Albright scored on a header after a corner kick. Crandall secured the victory with his second goal of the match in the 85th minute after receiving another assist from van Pelt.

Longwood outshot their opponent 21-8 (10-3 shots on goal). The Lancers also held a 10-3 edge in corner kicks. Crandall's stat sheet included two goals and a team-high of four shots. Sophomore Nick Surkamp had three shots for the Lancers with one on goal. Senior goalkeeper Joel Helmick recorded two saves while playing the entire 90 minutes for Longwood. Albright led the Spiders with the one goal and a match-high of five shot attempts. Thomas Hand, the keeper for Richmond, had seven saves while playing the entire match.

The men's soccer team goes back to work tonight, when they host Big South Conference member Radford. First kick is set for 7 p.m. at the Athletics Complex. The rest of the Lancers' schedule includes games against Adelphi, NJIT, Davidson, UNC Greensboro, Howard, High Point and Houston Baptist. The men's soccer team will also make an appearance in the ASC Tournament in New York in November.

The Lancers are 5-4-1 this season, including 3-2-1 at home and 2-2 away. This season is a marked improvement from last season, which saw the men's team win only two matches.