The Georgia Southern men’s soccer team on Wednesday defeated Jacksonville, 2-1, and improved its overall record to 5-4 heading into October.

Recap

The Eagles struck quickly in the 3rd minute as freshman midfielder Aldair Cortes took a cross from senior midfielder Thor Sveinbjornssen and finished deftly from the left side of the box to put GS up 1-0. It was Cortes’ second goal of the season.

Though the Eagles managed 10 shots with four on goal in the first half, the game went to the halftime break 1-0.

In the 60th minute, GS senior forward Blake Wilson found himself past JU goalkeeper Patrick Harding but with an awkward shooting angle. Wilson played a shot into the box, which was deflected back to top-middle of the box, and it rolled conveniently to the foot of Wilson’s teammate, junior midfielder Sebastian Gregersen.

Gregersen seized his opportunity and banged home a low shot past Harding for his second goal of the season, putting the Eagles up 2-0.

Quickly though, Jacksonville senior captain Allan Morgan capitalized off a deflection in the box three minutes later, tightening the game to 2-1.

From there, the GS defense stepped up and blanked the Dolphins for the rest of the match.

“If you want to play in a real attacking style, you need guys back there that are proper defenders … and are mobile enough to cover ground and mature enough to organize their teammates,” Murphy said of his defense.

Next man up

Murphy noted that without Javier Carbonell, GS’ leading assist man who sat out Wednesday to avoid a yellow car that would force his absence against Georgia State, other players needed to step up, and they did.

“Gregersen stepped up,” Murphy said. “He’s a very creative player in his own right.”

Murphy added that without leading assist man Javier Carbonell on Wednesday, senior forward Adam Abdellaoui “had his best game of the season.” Abdellaoui managed five shots on the evening and was constantly in a threatening offensive position.

He said that his team’s chemistry is still building, and seemed optimistic about the rest of the season.

“Being 5-4 at this point nine games in, and there’s still more to this team,” said GS head coach John Murphy. “So I think that’s exciting.”

State Comes to Town

The next match for Georgia Southern will be at home on Saturday, October 7 at 7 p.m. against Georgia State. 

It can be live-streamed online at gseagles.com/watch.