Georgia Southern scored three first-half goals to earn its first win of 2024 against Georgia Southwestern.
The Georgia Southern men’s soccer team defeated the Georgia Southwestern State Hurricanes 3-0 in an exhibition game at Tormenta Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Eagles took revenge for their last meeting with the Hurricanes, which saw them draw 2-2 in an exhibition match in 2022.
The two teams fought a heated duel at the beginning of the game, but it didn’t take long for the Eagles’ offense to blossom. Already in the eighth minute Ricky Louis was able to get around his defender on the right side of the penalty area and fired a rolling shot with his right foot into the opposite net, which meant the first goal of the season. Just five minutes later Louis was on the hunt again. But this time he threw a well-placed ball to Kevin Pierre on the left side of the box, who repeated the previous goal, this time with a left-footed shot that put the Eagles 2-0 up.
While the offense calmed down over the next 23 minutes, Georgia Southern struck again in the 36th minute. Harvey Sarajian played a ball to the middle edge of the penalty area for newcomer Ryan Holmes to put a shot into the side netting and give the Eagles a first-half hat trick. For newbies Louis And Holmeswere their first college goals. Although the Hurricanes had more shots on goal than the Eagles in the second half (7-5), neither side scored and Georgia Southern managed to keep a clean sheet in the first game.
Georgia Southern led in total shots on goal 13-9, while the Eagles also led in shots on goal 8-3. Georgia Southwestern led in corner kicks with seven to the Eagles with four, while the Hurricanes received 14 fouls, including five yellow cards, to the Eagles with ten.
“The first group scored early and took advantage,” said Georgia Southern’s head coach Lee Squires said. “We looked more dangerous in attack in the final third. But to be able to play with 22 people for 45 minutes to apply pressure and introduce some of our patterns against someone other than ourselves is really nice. It was good to have a midfielder with Kevin (Pierre) to score the second goal, it was good, Ryan (Holmes) who feeds on goals and the confidence in the scorer list after a nice finish, and then it was good to have a young newcomer like Ricky (Louis) also early on.”
Georgia Southern has one final exhibition game before the regular season when they travel to Tampa on Saturday, August 17 to face South Florida at a date to be announced.
