The High Point University men’s soccer team dropped a 3-1 decision to Stony Brook on Friday night in the Flash Gordon Motors Invitational at Vert Stadium. Sophomore Alex Martinez (Rock Hill, S.C./Northwestern) scored the Panthers lone goal in the loss.

“Stony Brook deserved the victory tonight, they scored some very good goals,” head coach Dustin Fonder said. “You have to look for some positives in the loss and I really think we responded well after going down a man and showed a lot of character. I really think that will serve us well moving forward. We just need to not put ourselves in these situations in the future.”

High Point finished the game with a 17-10 edge in shots but struggled to get the ball on net with just four shots on goal in the game. The Panthers also finished with an 8-5 edge in corner kicks. Junior Shawn Sloan (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) led HPU with five shots in the game, including two on net while senior Michael Chesler (Highland, Utah/Mountain View) made a game-high six saves in the loss.

High Point falls to 1-1-1 on the season with the loss while Stony Brook improves to 1-1-2.

Stony Brook got on the board first in the 35th minute of play when the Seawolves’ Will Casey got free down the right flank and sent a cross into the box to an open Raphael Abreu who put it in the back of the net.

The score remained 1-0 until the 60th minute when Stony Brook broke free on a counter attack off an HPU corner and Kyle Schlesinger scored off a cross from Berian Gobell. The Seawolves had a three-on-two advantage allowing Gobell to find Schlesinger open in the box 10 yards in front of the net.

HPU looked primed to cut the deficit to one goal just 30 seconds after the second Stony Brook goal when senior Karo Okiomah (Austin, Texas/Hendrickson-Pflugerville) was taken down in the box drawing a penalty kick. Sloan lined up to take the kick, but his shot the left side of the net was saved by Stony Brook’s Stefan Manz.

Already down two goals, High Point went down a man in the 61st minute when junior Shane Malcolm was shown a straight red card leaving HPU with just 10 men for the final 29 minutes of play. The match was very physical throughout with 36 fouls called and nine cards showed including the red to Malcolm.

The Panthers finally broke through in the 65th minute when Martinez managed to pounce on a loose ball just in front of the net to pull HPU to within one at 2-1. Redshirt-junior Ryan Bennett (Cary, N.C./Cary Christian) sent a cross into the box from the left flank that Manz appeared to catch at the right post, but the Seawolves’ goalie bobbled the ball and dropped it right to Martinez’s feet for the open-net goal.

Stony Brook sealed the game in the 69th minute when junior Patrick Donahue (Raleigh, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons) caught a Seawolves’ attacker with a slide tackle in the box to give Stony Brook a penalty kick. Leonardo Fernanades stepped to the spot and beat Chesler with a hard shot to the left side to make the score 3-1.

High Point will return to Vert Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 11 when the Panthers will face St. Bonaventure in the final game of the Flash Gordon Motors Invitational at 3 p.m. The Bonnies are coming off a 5-1 loss to Radford in the opening game of the Invitational. The match will serve as the first-ever meeting between the two teams. 

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