High Point Panthers One Of Four Teams Nationally Still Unbeaten, Untied

The High Point Panthers have begun their 2012 season with nine straight wins, including two of those against Big South opponents.

The Panthers joined Marquette, Cornell and UC Riverside as the only four teams in the nation to have yet to drop a point in a game this season.

The most recent win came over conference opponent UNC Asheville, 2-0. High Point held Asheville to only one shot in the game.

“I was pleased with our performance,” said HPU coach Dustin Fonder. “Asheville is a very well-coached team and I knew with a week to prepare they were going to come in here with a very good game plan. I thought we handled it and conducted ourselves well. We were able to find a pretty convincing win with two goals while holding them to just one shot over 90 minutes.”

Included in the eight wins is a 2-0 shutout of the Naval Academy on the road in Annapolis, MD.

The Panthers also defeated UNC Greensboro, 2-0, at home.

The season opening 4-2 win over Elon, and the game at Navy, are the only road games the Panthers have played.

The Asheville game was #4 in a six-game home stand.

The second half of the season will tell a lot about the Panthers. Included is a Big South game at Winthrop and a game with Virginia in Charlottesville three days later on Oct. 9.

High Point will close out the regular season in Conway, SC against Coastal Carolina in a game that could decide the Big South regular season championship.

The Panthers were picked second in the preseason coaches poll behind the Chanticleers, who received all 11 of the first-place votes.

High Point returned eight starters from last years team. They went 4-0-1 in the final five games, and started 2012 just where they left off.

Sophomore Mamadee Nyepon, who played high school soccer at Geensboro Page, leads the Panther scoring with eight goals and an assist. senior Shawn Sloan (Geneva, IL) is the leader in assists with eight.

Goalkeeper Kody Palmer, a red-shirt freshman from Centreville, VA, has started all nine games and has a sterling 0.52 goals allowed average.

Nyepon was honored as Big South Conference Player of the Week midway through September after scoring the game-winning goals against the UNCG Spartans, and then had a goal and an assist three days later to open conference play with a 5-1 win over Longwood.

Against the Spartans, he broke a scoreless tie in the 22nd minute with his fifth goal in three games. He now has scored eight goals, which leads the Panthers, and the BSC, in goals scored.

Nyepon played last summer with the USL Premier Development League Carolina Dynamo, which advanced to the league championship game.