LEXINGTON, Va. – Hoping for its first conference victory of the season, the VMI men's soccer team fell to Southern Conference foe East Tennessee State by a 3-0 score Saturday afternoon at Patchin Field.

An early score put the Bucs up at the 15:45 mark when Joao Ramalho took a forward pass from Fletcher Ekern and snuck it into the right corner to put ETSU up, 1-0.

Ten minutes later in the 27th minute, a red card was assessed to a VMI player, putting the Keydets down a man for the remainder of the game. Although no scores were made in the final 20 minutes of the first half, the man-down deficit proved costly for VMI in the second half as the Bucs added two more scores to preserve the win.

ETSU quickly scored in the second half at the 48:59 mark when Fletcher Ekem took a short cross from Ben Holt and shot it into the lower right corner. Ekem would add another five minutes later following a small scrum in VMI's box, which Ekem took advantage of and put a shot into the net for another insurance goal.

VMI keeper Alex Guerra earned four saves during the game, while ETSU's Jonny Sutherland earned three. The Bucs took 13 shots to VMI's eight for a modest advantage, while both teams were even in corner kick opportunities as ETSU took five to VMI's four.

VMI's Sam Moffat, Jackson Rowady and David Harpen led the Keydets with two shots apiece with Alex Hartman and Jonathan Martinez added one.

VMI returns to the pitch Tuesday with a road match at Furman. Kickoff with the Paladins is slated for a 7 p.m. start in Greenville, South Carolina.