BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - The Gardner-Webb University men's soccer team defeated visiting Radford 2-1 on Saturday night at Greene-Harbison Stadium, coming from behind to start Big South Conference play with a win

Things didn't get off to a flying start under the lights on Saturday, with the Highlanders jumping into the lead inside five minutes. A turnover at the back allowed Radford through on goal, where the visitors took a 1-nil lead on their only shot attempt of the game to that point.

GWU continued to dominate the ball and eventually did find a breakthrough however. Junior forward Elias Khodri slotted home from the edge of the box after a perfectly timed chest-pass from junior defender Leo Andrade, bringing the crowd to its feet and leveling the score at 1-1 after 28 minutes.

Khodri and the Runnin' Bulldogs didn't stop there, as the junior found his brace less than ten minutes later. In the 36th minute, graduate forward Lucas Gonzalez found Khodri who delivered one of the goals of the season, a back-heel finish into the far corner of the net, and putting Gardner-Webb into the lead, 2-1.

The Runnin' Bulldogs didn't lack chances in the second half but ultimately the game would finish 2-1. GWU scored what looked like a third inside the final ten minutes before a late offside call negated an insurance goal.

The contest wasn't without its fireworks either despite no goals in the second half. Radford picked up both a red card and a yellow card directed towards the bench all within seconds of each other in the 77th minute, in turn forcing the visitors to play nearly the entire quarter of an hour down a man as the 'Dawgs rode out a victory.

With now a 5-1-1 record, Gardner-Webb men's soccer is off to its best start overall since 1998.

"I think tonight we played with a little bit too much of an ego at times" said Head Coach Scott Wells. "We tried to walk the ball into the back of the net so I want us to continue to remember how we got to this point and it was by doing our individual jobs correctly. Everyone has a different job on the field. However, winning in Division I college soccer is hard and we went down, faced adversity, and came back in really good fashion so I'm really proud of them for that, but again, always learning and it's something to take to Furman" Wells added on.

GWU will now take a short break from Big South play to visit Furman on Tuesday night, September 24th.