Emory's Early Offense Lifts Eagles Past Spartan Men
ATLANTA – A trio of first-half goals proved to be the difference as the Case Western Reserve University men's soccer team fell to host Emory University (Ga.) by a 5-2 score during University Athletic Association play on Friday evening at the Woodruff P.E. Center.
The Spartans drop to 3-9-1 overall and 0-3 in the UAA as the schedule doesn't get easier. Case continues conference play and will square off with its fifth nationally-ranked opponent in the last six matches in No. 5 Carnegie Mellon University this Sunday, October 14, at 1:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh. With the victory, Emory improves to 7-5-1 and 2-1 in the Association.
The Eagles came out firing scoring the first of their three goals in the opening half just under three minutes into the contest when Alex Scott headed in a shot with an assist from David Garofalo.
Case knotted the contest just under seven minutes later when senior co-captain Eric Erb (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) scored his team-best fourth goal of the fall with an assist from freshman Chris Cvecko (Erie, Pa./McDowell).
However, Dylan Price scored on an assist from Garofalo near the midway point of the opening half and Alex Scott tallied the third goal in the 29th minute via a helper by Jeffrey Cochran giving the hosts a 3-1 halftime edge.
Out of the intermission, Emory added a pair of tallies from Andrew Natalino in the 47th and 53rd minutes, respectively, with assists from Garofalo and a double assist from Nick Schook and Alistair Moore.
Case sophomore midfielder/back Bairdy Hansen (Cazenovia, N.Y. / Manlius Pebble Hill) rounded out the scoring when he registered his first career goal in the 59th minute on a helper off the foot of senior back/midfielder Kostis Theoharides (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) for the final margin. The assist is Theoharides' third of the fall.
In net, sophomore Jay Darby (Flower Mound, Texas/Argyle) played the opening 45:00 of action, while senior Ryan Koepka (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township) had a save during the second stanza for Case. Abe Hannigan got the starting nod and improved to 5-2 in 71:07 with a save between the pipes for the Eagles, while Alex Wong played the 18:53 and also had a stop.
For the match, Emory outshot Case by a slight 13-9 count, and also held an edge in corner kicks, 10-5.
