BIRMINGHAM, Ala - Coming into Saturday's game with highly-ranked Birmingham-Southern, the VMI Keydets knew they had to come out quickly against the Panthers to have a shot at their first conference win of the season. The Keydets (5-5-1 / 0-2) scored goals in the first 15-minutes of each half of play, but couldn't hold the lead as the Panthers (6-3-1 / 3-0-1) rallied for a 3-2 victory.

Sophomore midfielder Josh Hanna got VMI on the board just 13-minutes into the game with a goal off a nice feed from Kevin Aldrich to put the Keydets up 1-0 early. Hanna's goal was his third of the season, and his second in the last two games.

John Sollock, who was called upon late to make the start in goal for the Keydets, notched three saves in the first half to keep Birmingham-Southern scoreless.

VMI came out firing in the second half as well, and just under five-minutes into the second half, struck again as Wythe Horbal got his team-high fourth goal of the season off a nice feed from junior forward Charles Nweke. The assist was also Nweke's fourth of the year.

After fending off the explosive Panthers for the next 20-minutes of the half, Birmingham-Southern senior midfielder Floreal Pedrazo almost single-handedly took the game over. Pedrazo was involved in a three-goal rally for the Panthers in just over ten-minutes of play. After feeding a pass to Joe Nasco for the Panther's first goal of the game, Pedrazo scored his second goal of the season to tie the contest at 2-2 and put in the game winner off a penalty kick in the 80th minute to put the Panthers up 3-2.

VMI had a couple of chances to tie the game late only to be turned away. Keith Simpson appeared to have the game tying goal in his sites with 5:34 left only to see Nasco make a diving save to block the attempt. Simpson had another attempt later with an open net only to have a BSC defender clear the ball from the box.

Birmingham-Southern came into today's contest with two of the top six scorers in the conference (Cozzolino-16, Langner-11). While the Keydets were able to shut them out, it was Pedrazo who did all the damage against VMI.

VMI rounds out its five-game road swing as they take on the Liberty Flames (3-4-2 / 1-0-1) in a Big South Conference matchup. The game takes place on Tuesday, October 11 at Liberty Soccer Field at 7:00 p.m.