MT. BERRY, Ga. – Led by two goals from sophomore Joe Yoffe, the tenth-ranked Embry-Riddle men's soccer team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 4-2 decision against No. 15 Berry (0-2) on Sunday. The Eagles netted one goal in the first and three in the second and out shot the Vikings 16-12 in the match.
“I thought we controlled the game from start to finish,” head coach David Gregson said following the match. "We passed the ball well and created some great chances. To come on the road and beat the No. 15 team in the country is a positive result for us and we're only going to keep improving.”
The Eagles struck the first blow in the first half after Ian Thompson was brought down just outside the penalty area. Berry starting goalie Michael Wentzler was trying to get his wall in place when a quick-thinking Peter Masters caught Wentzler off guard and out of position to lift the ball into the upper left corner to give the Eagles the lead.
In the 48th minute Hugh Davey played a ball from the left side of the Eagles' defensive third right into the path of Phil Middleton running down the right side. Middleton slipped the ball past Will Barbier who came into replace Wentzler at start of the second half to increase the lead to 2-0.
The Vikings got a goal back at the 53:58 mark on a corner kick. Teja Barkmann's cross into the box found Alejandro Palacios whose header bounced off the cross bar to Luis Salazar, who headed home Berry's first goal of the match.
The Eagles responded with another goal less than two minutes later. Daniel Whelan dribbled around three defenders before slotting the ball through to Yoffe who was standing at point blank range in front of the net. Yoffe tapped the ball just out of Barbieri's reach to give the Eagles a 3-1 advantage.
Palacios and Salazar combined again for the Vikings' second goal, but this time it was Palacios who was on the scoring end to pull Berry back within one in the closing minutes of the match.
Once again the Eagles had an answer for the Vikings and with just 13 seconds left on the clock, Liam McIlhatton played a ball down the left side to Peter Masters whose cross led to Yoffe's second goal of the day to seal the win.
The Eagles open up conference play at 4 p.m. on Sept. 12 when they host Northwood at Embry-Riddle Soccer Stadium.
