The men’s soccer team fell to Campbell in the season home opener on Saturday at Eagle Field.

The 1-0 loss drops the Eagles to 3-3 overall and the team has lost three of the last four games.

The Eagles faced a tough defensive squad in Campbell who came into Saturday’s match allowing only one goal over the previous four games. Last se

The scoreless first half ended with GS having a 6-5 edge in shots, but neither team could find any solid strikes on ball as the defensive units were equally suffocating.

“We just put a lot of effort into defending tonight,” Head Coach John Murphy said in a press release. “[And] when you put that much into defending, you don’t have that much of the ball.”

The lone goal of the game came in the 63rd minute as a foul issued just inside the box led to a penalty kick for the Camels.

Junior Thibaut Jacquel converted the penalty kick against sophomore goalkeeper Jokull Blaengsson to take the 1-0 lead and the Eagles could not find the equalizer in the remaining time.

The Eagles managed to get only one shot off in the second half against a stifling Campbell defense who turned up their own offensive output, accounting for 8 shots in the last 45 minutes.

“Campbell [is] a very good team,” Murphy said. “I thought they controlled [the] good parts of the game. I also thought our effort can’t be faulted, and the work rate was phenomenal, but there was just a lack of quality in our connections.”

Campbell finished the game with an edge in shots, 13-7, and corner kicks, 8-4. Both goalkeepers recorded two saves and Campbell held the fouls advantage with six compared to GS’ 11.

A crowd of over 400 came out to see the Eagles and Camels square off. The victory for Campbell improves their all-time series lead over GS to 8-2.

“I’m proud of the boys and their effort against a very good team in Campbell that’s going to win a lot of games this year,” Murphy said.

The Eagles’ next match will be away against the UAB Blazers on Tuesday, Sept. 24 in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Chuck Paggett, The George-Anne Sports Reporter, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu