BECKLEY, W.Va. – The Concord University men's soccer team blanked West Liberty for a 1-0 win Wednesday afternoon in a Mountain East Conference game at the YMCA Cline Complex.
The game's lone score came in the 43
rd minute off one of the six Concord (6-2-5, 3-2-5 MEC) corner kicks on the afternoon.
Junior midfielder
Andre Nicholson lined up a corner kick towards the far post where fellow junior midfielder
Elvis Gomez headed in his second goal of the season.
Gomez nearly doubled the CU lead in the first 30 seconds of the second half as his cross from sophomore midfielder
Tomas Kelly was blocked right before it crossed the goal line.
The Mountain Lions spent more time in the second half on the defensive against an aggressive West Liberty (5-4-4, 4-4-2 MEC) attack. The Hilltoppers outshot Concord 11-2 in the second half as sophomore goalkeeper
Keegan Grant was pressed into making seven of his nine saves after halftime.
Grant stuffed back-to-back shots on goal in the 78
th and 79
th minute before adding another save in the 80
th minute.
Over the final 10 minutes of play, the Mountain Lions were able to slow the steady dose of WLU shots as they only allowed three shots in the final moments of the game. Still, Grant had to cover one more shot with 12 seconds remaining to preserve his sixth shutout of the season.
West Liberty owned a 19-7 advantage in total shots for the game. CU took four shots on target.
Gomez was the only Concord player to take multiple shots in the contest.
Sophomore defender
Andrew Beohler and Nicholson also tallied a shot on goal, along with Nicholson's two.
Both teams registered six corners in the game.
The sixth win for the Mountain Lions this fall are the most victories for the program since 2016.
CU travels to Davis & Elkins 6:00 p.m. for the completion of the September 10 game that has 23 minutes remaining with Concord leading 1-0. The regularly-scheduled game at Davis & Elkins will begin at 7:00 p.m.
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