ELON, N.C. – Senior midfielder
Scott Vatne is no stranger to scoring in season openers or scoring game-winning goals. On Thursday night, he outdid himself.
The matchup between the Elon University men's soccer team and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles was a back-and-forth, physical bout for 90 minutes. It was the first meeting between these clubs, but based on how the two played, it felt like a rivalry game with years of build-up.
Junior midfielder
Majaliwa Msabaha and sophomore midfielder
Charlie Kitch dazzled with great defensive stands anytime the Eagles pushed it into their offensive side of the midfield. Senior goalkeeper
Tomasz Wroblewski collected a fantastic save that kept FGCU off the board en route to his first clean sheet of the 2024 season.
With under a minute left to play, the Phoenix searched for an answer. As potent as their own backline had been, the Eagles' defense was a puzzle Elon had yet to solve.
"If you continue to keep creating good chances and putting pressure on your opponent, you eventually grab on," head coach
Marc Reeves said. "Good players come up with big moments."
The big moment of the night arrived. With 47 seconds left on the clock, Vatne laid out, using his left foot to guide the ball into the bottom right corner. The Rudd Field crowd exploded as Vatne slid for his first celebration of the season.
"I feel like we were the better team the whole night," Vatne said. "I think the whole team was relieved that we got that one in the end."
With Vatne's goal, it marks the fourth year in a row that he has scored in Elon's season opener. While it certainly was not Vatne's first time playing in the maroon and gold, it was for players like junior midfielder
Connor Mucchetti.
"This was a great game," Mucchetti said. "Winning 1-0 at home, it was awesome."
In the offseason, the Phoenix added three transfers from St. John's University. The three new additions of Kitch, Mucchetti, and junior forward
Colin Veltri played a critical role in Elon's victory. Veltri and Kitch were credited with assists on Vatne's game-winner. Additionally, Kitch and Mucchetti played the entire 90 minutes of their Phoenix debuts.
"We all played [at St. John's] together, so we have some chemistry," Mucchetti said. "We all had pretty good performances tonight. We want to make our mark here as well."
The Phoenix will return to Rudd Field on Aug. 26 to face off against Radford University at 7 p.m. The matchup also packs an emotional core, as Reeves received his first head coaching opportunity at Radford.
"Robert Lineburg, the athletic director, is still there. Chris Barrett was my assistant for a bit there as well and they're great people. It's a brilliant program," Reeves said. "I had seven fantastic years there. One of our kids was born there. It's just an incredible place, but the emotion gets put to the side for the 90 minutes."
'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Chase Strawser at cstrawser@elon.edu.
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