BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Mitchell Cardenas scored twice in the second half and Campbell defeated Loyola (Md.) 2-0 Saturday night at the Eakes Athletic Complex.

 

In a battle between two regionally-ranked teams, Cardenas provided strikes in the 49th and 81st minutes, while Ethan Hall made two saves to record his second shutout of the year.

 

Coming off a two-week break, Campbell (3-1-1) finished with a 17-10 advantage in shots, 6-2 in attempts on target, against the Greyhounds (3-2-1), who entered the match ranked sixth in the NSCAA North Atlantic poll.  Campbell was ranked 10th in this week’s South Atlantic region list.

 

Loyola was the early aggressor, holding a 4-1 edge in shots after 12 minutes of play.  Larry Ndjock slipped a pass to Diego McQuestion behind the Camel back four in the third minute, but Hall charged off his line and made a foot save to keep the game scoreless.

 

Freshman Isaiah Page nearly put Campbell ahead in the 33rd when he curled a right-footed effort from outside the box that beat keeper Thurman Van Riper, but bounded off the junction of the cross bar and right post.

 

In the 40th minute, Dominic Marshall fed Ndjock behind the Camel back line, but the freshman from Germany missed wide of the left post.

 

Campbell held a 7-5 edge in shots over the scoreless first half.

 

Just 3:08 into the second half, Cardenas scored his first goal of the year.  The senior from Mexico City hit a low right-footed free kick that took a slight deflection around the wall and entered Van Riper’s goal just inside the right post.

 

The Retrievers almost equalized in the 70th minute when Ndjock turned in the box and launched a shot that hit low off the right post.

 

In the 81st, Cardenas capped a long run diagonally across the Greyhound half of the field with a right-footed effort that curled over Van Riper and just inside the left post for his second goal of the season.

 

The double moved Cardenas into 23rd place on Campbell’s all-time scoring list with 55 points on 16 goals and 23 assists.

 

Hall made his lone save of the second period in the 82nd minute on Connor Thompson’s free kick that was headed just under the cross bar, but the junior keeper from Raleigh held.

 

Campbell won for the first time in the all-time series against the Greyhounds, who now hold a 3-1-1 edge.  Loyola won the first game ever played at the Eakes Complex, 2-0 on Sept. 1, 1986.  Loyola, ranked 23rd in the nation at the time, won a 1-0 decision in 2008 at Baltimore.

 

The Camels and Greyhounds played to a scoreless draw in the 2010 opener at Buies Creek, before Loyola won 1-0 last year despite being out-shot by a 30-5 margin.

 

Campbell improved to 40-19-2 (.672) at the Eakes Athletic Complex since the start of the 2005 season.  The Camels are 2-0 at home this year, but start a four-match road stretch Tuesday at 14th-ranked NC State (7 pm).