Elon suffers first conference loss to James Madison



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The Elon University men’s soccer team suffered their first Colonial Athletic Association conference loss in a 2-0 home loss to James Madison University Dukes. The Dukes won the hotly contested game with a scrappy pair of goals. These are the first two goals conceded by Phoenix in conference.

“Every game you want a clean sheet,” Elon University junior goaltender Pierre Wentzel noted. “Every game you don’t want to concede a goal as a goalie. It’s a tough loss of course, but it doesn’t matter who we play against, whether they’re top 20 in the country or 150th in the country, you want a clean sheet. So no matter how many clean sheets we have in the past, no matter how much we conceded two goals, now we are looking at the next game.

James Madison, the two defending CAA champions, started the game with flying colors, scoring the first goal in the opening nine minutes. As the game progressed, the Phoenix began to threaten more offensively. Elon forced an impressive save from Dukes goalkeeper Martin Leu before being denied a penalty, despite protests from the players.

Elon continued to dominate the game early in the second half, taking five shots in the opening 10 minutes. In the second half, the Phoenix outscored the Dukes 13-7, but the team failed to equalize and conceded a late goal in the 81st minute to be 2-0 behind, which was the final score. .

“It’s a difficult loss because, you know, we want to win every game, especially at home, with conference points so tight ”, the head coach Marc Reeves noted. “They are clearly a great, well-trained team with really strong players.”

Wentzel played a good game in goal for the Phoenix, making seven saves and keeping Elon competitive in the game. Senior Christian Lauenborg played the entire game in midfield, scoring three shots in total including one on target.

Elon’s men’s football team will be back to action at home in a non-conference game against Campbell Wednesday, September 29, with kick off at 7:00 p.m., before traveling to face Drexel in a CAA game on Saturday October 2.




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