The University of Charleston ran into a tough contest on the road at Ohio Dominican on Friday night, but put together a full team effort to prevail 2-1 to extend the win streak to three games.
Charleston (5-3) came out early continuing its trend of controling possession with superior ball-handling. In his first career start, Ceth Locklear found the net in the 29th minute to hand the Golden Eagles the early advantage.
Ohio Dominican (4-3-1) showed the were a force that will defend their home turf as they responded with a goal just three minutes after the Locklear strike when Felix Darko found a rare opening in the left side of the UC defense.
The game would go into halftime tied 1-1 with Charleston outshooting the Panthers 11-6, but ODU goalkeeper Dean Dziewit kept his squad within reach of the win with four first half saves.
In the second half the teams played nearly even as two top teams met each other with strong attacks. Charleston's aggressiveness caused UC to be hit with eight fouls in the second half, while Ohio Dominican was only whistled one time.
Being aggressive finally paid off as Ryan Osborne won control of the ball at midfield and placed a perfect ball ahead of the Panther defense to a speeding Dion Peters who took the breakaway in the box for a one-on-one with Dziewit. Peters won the battle in front of the net slamming the ball just inside the left post from 12-yards out to the game winning goal at the 71:34 mark.
For the night, UC outshot the Panthers 17-11 with Golden Eagle keeper Sean Teepen booking two saves in the victory.
"The lads played excellently tonight. We finally looked like the team that we can be." said Head Coach Chris Grassie, "We pressed well defensively, didn't let them play and in the attack we moved the ball quickly with a purpose. I give ODU a lot of credit, they are the best team we've played so far and played the game very well. Tonight our boys played like champions"
Charleston continues its Ohio road-swing on Sunday, Oct. 2 when the Golden Eagles visit Urbana for a 2:00 pm matchup.