MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – A six goal outburst helped Berry men's soccer to their first win of the season after a 6-1 win over Methodist University on Saturday afternoon at Bob Pearson Field.
"Today's performance was very much deserved. I think we all worked really hard to earn the win today," said Berry's team captain
Tracy Moon.
Berry (1-2-2) started the first half with an early lead as its strikers
Nathan Carlson and
Dylan Bloch had shots but were both saved by Methodist's goalie. Moon delivered the Vikings first goal of the afternoon with another shot in the low center making the score 1-0.
"We had a lot of energy going into the box. We were buzzing trying to get the shot off, and it finally landed on my feet, and I was just able to shoot and score which was nice," said Moon.
Bloch kept pushing with another shot into the low center getting Berry to a 2-0 advantage. Three minutes later, Methodist's forward cut the Vikings lead to 2-1.
With Berry still on the lead on the first half, Bloch kept applying pressure on Methodist's defenders and scored his second goal of the match. This time he was assisted by Freshman Rhys Pollard. The Vikings added one more goal to the score after a penalty kick goal scored by
Ryan Antoine withing the last 10 minutes of the first half.
After many substitutions from both teams, the intensity of the second half reached its peak in the last eight minutes of the match. Berry's strikers and defenders lined up against Methodist's midfielders to bring pressure into the box, adding a nice build up through the back leading to Antoine hitting the ball over to Harmond Jeffords to net the goal.
Many emotions were shown in the field as the Vikings celebrated Jeffords who took a year off last season.
"It's hard coming back," said Jeffords. "I was not fully prepared coming back into that, but I loved every minute of it, and I love these guys. It's just been awesome."
With only seven minutes left of the match, Freshman
Jason Wong Lopez was subbed in to give the Vikings their final goal. Wong Lopez scored his first collegiate career goal with a burst of energy looking for a one two and scored from the left bottom of the box.
"It feels good," said Wong Lopez, "After not getting a lot of minutes and then coming on, and scoring a goal means a lot, especially as a freshman."
"I think this would hopefully be a precedent to what we do next. We had a rough start to the season, and I think this is just putting us on the right page," said Jeffords "Hopefully we're coming back and winning season for the second time".
The Vikings will return to action on Wednesday at 6 p.m. travelling up the road to Covenant College.
