Boxscore

Photo courtesy of Christopher Permar

NEWARK, Del. -- Senior Darren Christie scored the game’s lone goal to lead the University of Delaware men’s soccer team to a 1-0 victory over visiting James Madison University at Delaware Mini-Stadium on Saturday evening.

Both Delaware (4-6-0 overall, 1-1-0 CAA) and James Madison (5-2-1 overall, 0-1-0 CAA) had multiple opportunities to score throughout the 90 minutes of action, though the Blue and Gold’s score in the 64th minute was enough to secure the Hens’ first Colonial Athletic Association win of the season.

As the home squad notched its first conference win with the upset, the Dukes dropped their CAA opener in Newark.

The Hens looked to get on the board at 17:25 as Christie (at right) blitzed through and around multiple defenders before blasting a shot at goal. As the Hens’ bench and fans rose to their feet, his shot connected with the right post before being booted out of play by the Dukes’ defense.

While the game remained a scoreless stalemate, JMU was all but successful on a corner-kick play when senior Joel Senior served a ball into the box connecting with junior CJ Sapong. Sapong headed the ball at goal, but UD freshman goalie Brandon Paul made an impressive save to keep the game at 0-0.

Paul made an additional notable save in the 59th minute as he dove to boot a shot by JMU’s freshman Paul Wyatt out of goal contention.

It was at 63:09 that the deadlock was cracked. A strong Hens’ defense held off an attacking Dukes’ offense by gaining ball possession and getting the ball to the feet of Ben Rodkey. The junior midfielder then sent a through ball to Christie which led to the ensuing goal.

After Rodkey’s serve, Christie dodged a defender which in turn pulled Dukes’ keeper Ken Manahan out of position. Christie continued to dribble down to the right post before tapping the ball over the goal line to score the eventual game-winning goal.

“I could not be more proud of our lads tonight,” praised fourth-year head coach Ian Hennesy. “Their spirit and mental toughness saw us through against a very good JMU team. We have now won three of our last four and I know they are hungry for more.

“We had a game plan tonight and we made it work -- we could have had three or four goals because of some delightful work by Darren who was a threat all night. In the end the crowd helped the lads when they needed it most and hopefully we can feed off this for future games,” concluded Hennessy.

Paul tallied five saves en route to earning his third collegiate shutout, while Manahan was only forced to make one save for JMU.

UD and JMU are knotted at a series of 3-3-2 since becoming CAA opponents in 2002, though the Dukes hold a 9-3-2 advantage since the first head-to-head in the 1991 season.

Delaware will return to Colonial Athletic Association action on Wednesday, Oct. 7 when it hosts Drexel University in a 7 p.m. match.

AGATE:

JMU..............0...0.....0
Delaware.......0...1.....1

Scoring Summary: First Half: None; Second Half: UD - Darren Christie (Ben Rodkey) - 63:09; Shots: UD - 8, JMU - 11; Corner Kicks: UD - 3, JMU - 7; Saves: UD - 5 (Brandon Paul 5), JMU - 2 (Ken Manahan 1); Fouls: UD - 10, JMU 10; Offsides: UD - 3, JMU - 0.