Emory University's Zach Samuels scored his
second game-winning goal in as many contests, and assisted on
another, leading the ninth-ranked Eagles to a 3-1 win over
Oglethorpe University on Tuesday.
The Eagles jumped out to a quick start, scoring at the 1:02 mark of
the contest on junior Nao Masuda's fifth goal
of the season. Masuda broke into the box, where Samuels found
him with a pass. Masuda one-touched the ball, placing it into
the back of the net to give Emory a 1-0 lead. It was the
team-best eighth assist of the campaign for Samuels.
The score would remain 1-0 until early in the second half, when
sophomore David Langton made a sliding steal at
midfield, passing the ball in one motion to Samuels. Samuels
would then break away to the set, and score his team-leading sixth
goal of the season at the 56:32 mark.
Samuels has recorded at least a point in 10 of the 12 Emory games
this season, including nine of the last 10 Emory
contests.
Less than 10 minutes later, a penalty kick set up by a foul against
Samuels would be taken and converted by sophomore Andrew
Natalino to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead. The goal was
the sixth of the season for Natalino (including his second on a
penalty kick) to match Samuels for the team lead.
After goalkeeper Trenton Spindler and much of the
Emory starting defense was pulled from the game in the 67th minute,
the Eagles shutout streak would finally come to an end, as
Oglethorpe's Alex Van Zandt struck with his first goal of the
season on a long shot from the top corner. The Eagles'
school-record streak of consecutive shutouts ended at nine
games, and stretched over 983 minutes and 52 second of game
time.
Spindler earned the victory in the game improving to 10-0-1 on the
season with a 0.10 goals against average.
With the win, Emory improved to 11-0-1 on the season, while
Oglethorpe dropped to 5-5-1 on the season with the loss.
The Eagles will return to action this weekend, resuming conference
play at New York University at 1:30 PM on Friday, before traveling
to Brandeis University for a 1:30 PM match on Sunday.