LEXINGTON, Va.- On a day where six seniors played their final match at Patchin Field, senior Brian Harding scored three goals while fellow senior Sonny Landry added his second goal of the season to send the Keydets over Presbyterian Saturday afternoon in front of a season-high 423 spectators. The win secures the No. 7 seed in the upcoming Big South Tournament, where the Keydets will take on No. 2 Coastal Carolina Thurs., Nov. 11 in the opening round of the tournament, hosted by High Point.
VMI (3-11-2, 3-5 BSC) opened up the match with a flurry, taking several shots and earning three corners in the opening seven minutes of action. The Keydets were rewarded in the 10th minute of action, as Harding earned his first goal of the afternoon on a beautiful strike on the right flank from 35-yards out, hitting the top left portion of the back of the net to give VMI the early 1-0 lead.
PC (2-13-1, 0-8 BSC) knotted the match up in the 27th minute, as Thomas Palma hit a streaking Nico Fazio, who chipped VMI keeper Brian Sowell from the top of the area to tie the match at 1-1.
Harding struck again just before the intermission, as he took a through ball from sophomore Kip Zechman from 30-yards out, drilling the shot in the lower left portion of the goal to give the Keydets the 2-1 lead heading into the half.
Despite being down 2-1 at the half PC held a 13-11 shot advantage. However, VMI had five corners to PC's three, with the majority coming in the opening minutes of play.
The second frame started out with a flurry, as Harding netted his third goal of the afternoon less than a minute in. Classmate Amir Shihata beat a group of Blue Hose defenders on the left flank, sending a cross into the box that found the foot of Harding, who fired a shot past PC goalie James Neal to bring the score to 3-1 in favor of the Keydets.
Fazio added his second goal of the match at the 49:15 mark, as he beat Sowell top-left after a pass from Davis Orders to trim the Keydet advantage to 3-2. The VMI deficit was short lived, as Shihata picked up his second helper of the match only 38 seconds later, finding Landry inside the 18 who beat Neal to extend the VMI lead to a 4-2 margin.
PC wouldn't go down without a fight, as Sean King followed up an Orders shot that hit the left post in the 75th minute. The rebound shot went past the diving Sowell, beating the keeper to his right, to trim the Keydet margin to the eventual final tally of 4-3.
Harding's three scores gives him five goals on the season, and now leads the squad with 15 points. Shihata's pair of assists brings his season total to three, and 13 points total. Landry's goal was his second of the season, and the third of his career.
The last Keydet to score at least three goals in a match was in 1999, as Jason Legal scored five goals against Belmont.
Sowell and Neal each made seven saves on the day. Presbyterian held a 21-19 shot advantage in the match, while VMI earned nine corners to PC's three.
VMI will next be in action on Thurs., Nov. 11, as the No. 7 seed in the Big South Tournament. The Keydets will take on the No. 2 seed Coastal Carolina at 2:30 p.m. from High Point's Vert Stadium. Presbyterian's season is now complete, as the Blue Hose are ineligible for the tournament.
--VMI--
