The Elon University men’s soccer team upset No. 6 University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2-0 in a tightly contested match Saturday night at Rudd Field.
The win is among the most significant in school history, and head coach Darren Powell knew how momentous the win was for his program.
“It’s the first time we’ve beaten a top ten team in the country,” Powell said. “For us it’s just part of a body of work that we’re trying to do and accomplish here. We have a lot of respect for UNC-Charlotte, their a top, top program, very well coached, so to pull that victory off means a lot to the team.”
Elon senior forward Chris Thomas, who scored both goals, has no trepidation in calling this win the most significant of his career in the maroon and gold.
“At Elon, it’s the top game by far,” Thomas said. “To take down No. 6 in the nation, it feels good. [The] runner up in the national championship [last year], it feels great.”
Even so, Powell knows the importance of not resting on past accomplishments with conference play still needing to be navigated.
“It’s only the start of things in our body of work,” Powell said. “We hope to continue to improve throughout the season.”
Thomas, one of nation’s top goal scorers, took a perfect pass from junior midfielder Matt Wescoe and buried it in the back of the net in the 19th minute to give Elon a 1-0 lead. Thomas’ goal was his ninth on the season.
It was a play he said changed the entire complexion of the match.
“[The goal] made Charlotte realize they were going to have to work to get a result out of this game,” Thomas said. “We kept the work up the whole time and they realized they were going to have to push for a goal. It wasn’t going to be easy.”
Wescoe then found Thomas for a second goal, this time in the 32nd minute on a cross into the box that found its way to Thomas near the back post.
Thomas believes his chemistry with Wescoe is the key to their team’s success.
“I love Wescoe, I feel like we have a great connection,” Thomas said. “He works hard. He’s always looking for me; I’m trying to look for him all the time. He’s a great passer, he’s a great player. I love playing next to him.”
The offense wasn’t the only unit clicking against the 49ers. The defense, at times quite porous, kept a clean sheet against the best team they will likely face this season. That, according to goalkeeper Nathan Dean, is a promising sign moving forward.
“We have to [keep a shutout] more consistently now, because we haven’t done that during the season [before tonight],” Dean said. “We showed that we could do that against the best now and we’re going to go out and work towards that every day now for the rest of the season.”
Powell was impressed with his team’s defensive performance, especially considering the dynamic offense they were competing against.
“I think tonight the defensive display of the team, which is what we talked about, was probably the best we’ve seen thus far,” Powell said. “It needed to be because we know Charlotte is one of the top teams. They’ve got some great attacking players with Jennings Rex and Giuseppe [Gentile] and Donnie Smith. So we knew we had to contain those guys and they were focused and did a good job.”
The Phoenix will have until Wednesday to prepare for Radford University, who defeated Elon 5-1 in last year’s meeting.
“Last year, Radford quite comfortably beat us,” Dean said. “It’ll be a very tough test, we know that. It’s going to be a different kind of game, but it’s one that will be equally difficult. So we know to get a win, to get a shutout in that game, it’s going to require the exact same energy, the exact same performance. We can do it and we’ve got a lot of confidence going into that game.”