ELON, N.C. -- Gabe Loducca scored the first goal of his career at 70:51 to send Elon to a 1-0 men’s soccer Southern Conference victory over visiting Davidson on Saturday afternoon. The win lifted the Phoenix to 7-6-2 overall and 3-0-1 in SoCon play. The defeat was the first in league action and snapped a four-game winning streak for the Wildcats who dipped to 10-5-1, 3-1-0.
The scoreless first half saw a total of six shot by the two teams, three of which were on goal, as neither team could muster much offense.
Loducca (pictured right) finally broke through for the game’s only score in the 71st minute when Brett Paschall crossed a ball from the corner that Loducca blasted past the Wildcat keeper.
Taylor Saxe snared eight saves for Elon to record his fifth shutout of the season and his second consecutive blanking. Davidson’s Ben Ashton made two saves on the afternoon, but allowed the one goal.
The very physical game featured 38 total fouls (Davidson 23, Elon 15), six yellow cards and one red card. The Wildcats earned nine corners to only one for Elon and held a 13-8 edge in total shots.
Elon coach Darren Powell stated, “The boys are really excited. We’ve been training hard all year and today it paid off. Davidson is a very good and well coached team.
“We still have three conference games remaining and we need to refocus and get ready to play the final stretch of the season.”
The Phoenix will visit Wofford for a 5:00 p.m. start on Tuesday afternoon while Davidson will host Appalachian State at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
-- ELON -- Game Box Score
