NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After failing to score a goal in Sunday’s loss to James Madison the Lipscomb men’s soccer team bounced back in a big way Wednesday night at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.

Making its 2014 home opener the Bisons exploded with a season high in goals and took the 4-1 decision over Houston Baptist in the opening game of the Hyatt Place Select Lipscomb Invitational.

“This was a great response for us after a tough loss on Sunday,” Lipscomb coach Charles Morrow said. “The score was not indicative of how tough this game was.

“Our two styles are really different and for us to go out there and shut down Houston Baptist’s two big guys up top was really tremendous.”

With the win Lipscomb improves to 5-1-0 on the year and HBU is left searching for its first win of the year at 0-2-2.

In the 15^th minute junior midfielder Anthony Cedano nailed a header off a perfectly placed corner kick in the box from Ivan Alvarado to take an early lead.

The Bisons struck again in the 23^rd minute when Alvarado and Josue Chavez served up Omar Djabi in the box.

Houston Baptist hung a tally on the scoreboard at 30:42 after a Huskie corner kick deflected off of Lipscomb’s goalie and fell at the feet of Tobenna Uzo for his second goal of the season to cut the Bisons lead to 2-1 heading into the half.

Although Alvarado was making his fourth start of his collegiate career, the freshman used Wednesday night as his break-out game.

Adding to his already 2-assist game, the Texas native scored his first-career goal.

Djabi played a perfect pass in the box for the freshman who struck from 8-yards out at the 73:26 mark.

“Ivan, like so many of our other freshmen, is starting to come into his own,” said Morrow. “It is really great to see Ivan increase his production.

“He played a hand in three of our four goals and that is indicative of what he is capable of. I don’t this is is an aberration. We expect more of that.”   

Senior Luke Gearin ended the scoring for the night two minutes later after netting his third penalty kick in the last four matches for Lipscomb. He moved into a tie atop the league lead in scoring with Simen Solstad of North Florida.

Freshman goalie Nate Davis drew the nod between the pipes for Lipscomb after not seeing playing time in the last three matches. Davis came up with a couple big saves on his way to a 3-save night.

Freshman Jonathan "Buddy" Ramirez came off the bench for the Bisons and attempted a match and career high four shots. He put three of those attempts on goal.

"I thought "Buddy" had a tremendous game," Morrow said. "He took a couple of shots that were near misses. It is exciting to see our freshmen coming in and improving each and every game."

 

QUICK KICKS:

• Lipscomb has won its home opener in back-to-back season after losing in the previous two.
• Six different Bisons have now scored in 2014.
• Lipscomb tied a season-high with 19 shot attempts. Its 12 shots on goal was a season high. The Huskies put 4-of-10 on goal.
• The Bisons took a season-high 10 corner kicks compared to HBU’s six.
• Lipscomb won its opening match of the Lipscomb Invite for the first time since a 2-0 win over UNC-Asheville in 2010. The victory was the first in the invite in four games, a 2012 victory over Oral Roberts.
• Alvarado is now tied for third on the team with Djabi in points with five.
• Djabi now has two goals and is amongst a trio of Bisons with three assists (Alvarado and Holcombe). The assists rank second in the A-Sun.
• Chavez’s assist was his second through six games and the third of his career.
• Gearin now has four goals in his senior campaign. He had five in all of last season.
• Cedano scored his second career goal in the first half. His first came at Xavier in August.
• The four goals Wednesday are the most by Lipscomb in a game since beating Jacksonville in October of 2013, 4-1, a stretch of 14 matches.

 

UP NEXT:

Lipscomb returns to the pitch Friday at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex to play its second game of the Lipscomb Invitational with Memphis at 7:30 p.m. It will be the second game of the day as it will follow Belmont vs. Houston Baptist at 5 p.m.

“Memphis will be a huge matchup for us,” said Morrow. They are an in-state rival and we want to win those type of games.

“It is big because it will help our RPI, ranking, seeding and where we want to be at the end of the season. It provides us a chance to grow as a team while playing top-level competition. We are looking forward to the opportunity.”