Junior Emmanuel Joseph (Port of Spain, Trinidad/East Central J.C.) had a goal and an assist in the first half, as Radford held on for a 2-1 Big South Conference road win over UNC Asheville Saturday afternoon at Greenwood Field.
Joseph opened the scoring in the first four minutes of the match. Radford countered against a Bulldog threat and junior Justin Zimmer (Chesapeake, Va/Hickory) zipped a perfect pass to Joseph who scored from 15 yards out for a 1-0 Highlander lead at the 4:31 mark.
Asheville came back and fired the next four shots on goal but Taylor made three saves to preserve the Radford lead.
Midway through the first half, the Highlanders had a counter-attack again and scored. Joseph made a nice pass to freshman Iyiola Awosika (London, England/Aylesbury Grammar) who scored from eight yards out for a 2-0 Radford lead at the 30:13 mark.
The Bulldogs had a 6-5 shot advantage at halftime but the Highlanders led 2-0.
Each team had chances in the second half before Asheville took advantage of a Radford foul to get on the scoreboard. Off a direct kick from 30 yards out, Nathan Neal sent a perfect pass into the Radford goal area. Patrick Tate was there for the Bulldogs and headed the ball into the goal to cut the lead to 2-1 at 73:29.
Asheville dominated possession in the final 16 minutes but could not get a high-quality shot away. Finally in the 87th minute, senior J.W. Gallagher was seven yards from the goal with the ball. His point-blank shot was smothered by Taylor to keep Radford in front.
Radford heads to High Point for a Big South Conference match on Wednesday at 7 p.m.