Harrisonburg, Va. (October 18, 2008) The Georgia State men's soccer team (4-6-3, 0-4-2 CAA) fell 2-0 on the road against James Madison (6-5-2, 3-3-0 CAA)on Saturday.
Senior Duke forward Kyle Morsink scored first in the 21st minute off of a pass from teammate CJ Sapong about 10 yards out.
James Madison dominated the flow of the game, holding the Panthers to only nine shots, compared to its 20.
"We played against a very good James Madison team tonight. It was tough because we are dealing with injuries and missed four starting seniors today," commented Georgia State coach Kerem Daser.
The Dukes continued their aggressive play as they scored the second goal of the night only seven minutes in to the second period. Sapong received the ball off an assist from midfielders Nick Zimmerman and Andrew Harvey and was able to beat out senior Panther goalkeeper Filipe Carvalho, and net the ball into the lower left corner. Carvalho finished the contest with six saves.
"We gave up goals in the past few games by losing the ball in our defensive half. We need to be sharper and better when we're in possession. That being said, I believe that senior goalkeeper Filipe had an outstanding night for us, making several great saves," continued Daser.
The Panthers had several scoring chances in the final 30 minutes of play. In the 61st minute junior Brett Cummins angled a shot from outside the box on the left side that sailed just wide of the goal. In the 67th minute sophomore Joe Castaldo controlled a ball that rebounded out of the box after a Georgia State corner kick was cleared by a defender. His shot from about 12 yards out was just wide of the goal on the right side. With a little more than six minutes remaining, senior Joe DeVito got possession of another ball that was cleared out of the box on a corner kick. His shot from 25 yards went over the crossbar.
Junior Donald Kirkland led the Panther offense with two shots while Joey Syfert, Linus Warendh, Castaldo, DeVito, Stephan Minyono, Cummins, and Ayokunle Lumpkin recorded a shot a piece. Lumpkin was the only Panther able to make a shot on goal.
"The CAA is one of the top soccer conferences. We need to get healthy and get ready for the last stretch. We've shown that we can compete in this league, but now we need to raise our level of play. We're getting ready for our home stretch and to play our best soccer this week against VCU and George Mason," finished Daser.
Georgia State hosts Virginia Commonwealth on Wednesday, October 22nd at Panthersville at 7 p.m. for the inaugural game under the lights followed by a Saturday match against George Mason at 7 p.m. Check GeorgiaStateSports.com for livestats and the game recap immediately following.
