Although the Elon men's soccer team lost its match 3-0 to No. 21 UNC-Charlotte 49ers 3-0 Sept. 9, the Phoenix rallied back to win 5-0 against the University of North Florida Ospreys Sept. 11, notching the program's first win of the season.
"We made some individual mistakes which we were punished for against a highly ranked Charlotte," head coach Darren Powell said. "And we lost our confidence after they scored a goal against us in that game."
The 49ers scored two goals within 10 minutes of each other during the second half of the game and scored a third at the 70 minute of the match. Charlotte ended the match with 18 shots while the Phoenix only had seven. That loss left the Phoenix with three losses and one draw early into the season.
Sunday's match against the Ospreys was vastly different, with Elon leading 2-0 at the halftime after a goal scored by sophomore midfielder Daniel Lovitz at 32 minutes assisted by junior forward Chris Thomas. Thomas scored a goal at 40 minutes, assisted by junior midfielder Gabe Latigue.
The Phoenix led the first half with 14 shots on goals compared to the Ospreys' one shot.
"It was good work and a good effort that resulted in a win even though it took us a while to win," Thomas said.
Thomas scored two goals in Sunday's game.
In the second half, junior forward Archie Karpeh scored his second goal of the season at 61 minutes, assisted by Latigue and Thomas. Thomas then scored his second goal of the game and season at 78 minutes, assisted by sophomore defender Glenn Scott, who scored the fifth goal as a result of a free kick for the Phoenix.
The match concluded with a Phoenix 22-4 shot lead and 6-2 corner kick advantage.
"Everyone before the game was ready," senior forward Denzel Ogunyase said. "We stayed on top of (North) Florida, and they weren't fit to play against us."
Thomas agreed with Ogunyase about the opponent's readiness to play against the team. He said the Ospreys were a bit weaker than the Phoenix, and that allowed the Elon team to control the match from start to finish.
"We gave the other team no leeway," said junior forward Jordan Smith. "We wanted to win, and we needed a home win."
The team's next matchups are against undefeated Campbell University Sept. 14 on the road and a match against Old Dominion University Sept. 17.
The team will build off its win against North Florida and work harder in practice, Powell and junior defender Jahan Threeths said.
"I hope we can just work off this win during our practice and work harder on what we can do to win our next game," Threeths said.
Powell said he is looking forward to the team using its win to play harder in upcoming games.
"I'm more pleased with the performance of the game," he said. "I don't think we've ever completed 90 minutes of intense soccer like this before. I'm very proud of the team and the whole squad and hope they can use this win to kick off the season."