Box Score MIDWAY, Ky. -- After defeating Pikeville (Ky.) in their home opener on Tuesday, Midway returned to the Midway Soccer Field on Thursday as they battled St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) in River States Conference men's soccer action.
The match was tied with one goal apiece at halftime, but the visitors doubled the Eagles up in the second half with a 4-2 advantage as the Pomeroys – who are the newcomers to the RSC in 2021-22 – took home their first-ever RSC victory with the 5-3 win.
The Eagles fall to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in league play with the loss, while St. Mary-of-the-Woods improves to 3-1-1 overall and 1-0 in River States Conference play following the win.
Tim Wolz's squad got off to a strong start as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute. Thomas Sidebottom (Bardstown, Ky.) played a long ball over the Pomeroy defense to Unaiz Shajani (Nairobi, Kenya) who fired a strike in the upper-90 from nearly 30 yards out.
The 1-0 lead would stand for nearly seven minutes before the Pomeroys equalized. Hamza Zagmouzi played a cross and found Luis Botello who scored his first marker of the season.
The match remained tied at one goal apiece at intermission, but the start to the second half wasn't too kind to the Blue and Gold. The Pomeroys scored four unanswered markers in the opening 27 minutes and 49 seconds of the second half as they sprinted to a 5-1 lead.
Now needing at least four goals to equalize, the Eagles pushed forward to create more scoring opportunities. Midway broke through in the 72nd minute via a penalty kick. A Midway player was taken down in the box as Florene Twahirwa (Lexington, Ky.) stepped up to take the PK.
Twahirwa finished off the PK and slid it by the keeper for his second goal of the season cutting the deficit to 5-2 before the Eagles continued to cut into the Pomeroy lead with another goal in the 84th minute.
This time it was Drew Blaydes (Midway, Ky.) who played a cross into the box connecting with Thomas Sidebottom who needed his first goal of the season making the score 5-3.
Unfortunately for the home team, that's as close as they'd get as St. Mary-of-the-Woods held on to the 5-3 victory.
Hunter Caudill (Winchester, Ky.) got the start in goal for the Eagles stopping two of the five shots he faced, while Tyler Glass (Louisville, Ky.) played the final 24:56 in goal stopping one of the three shots he faced.
The Eagles will now look to bounce back on Saturday (Sept. 18) when they host IU East (Ind.) at the Midway Soccer Field at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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