 Zeiko Harris and his Appalachian State University Men's Soccer teammates bounced back with a 3-0 triumph against George Mason (2-4) at George Mason Stadium.
With the win, Appalachian State surpassed last season's win total while picking up their first win over the Patriots.
Great, complete, team performance tonight," head coach Jason O'Keefe said after the win. "We weathered some good spells by them (George Mason)in the first half then executed our game plan and guys stepped up. Goals change games and they did tonight."
Harris highlighted the Appalachian victory with first-career multi-score game, scoring a pair of goals. Aldo Tarantini scored his first-career collegiate goal, becoming the fourth freshman for Appalachian to score the season.
Jake Chasteen recorded his conference-leading fourth clean sheet of the season with three stops in 90 minutes. After the victory, the Boone native's goals against average is now at an impressive .75, which is the second lowest in the conference.
Appalachian struck first in the 38th minute when Justin Pruitt sent a cross from the left side to Tarantini who then fired a diving shot from 10 yards outside of the net to give Appalachian a 1-0 lead.
Appalachian continued the attack in the first period and capitalized just three minutes later as Felix Kollmannthaler served up a long pass from midfield to Harris for a header just 10 yards outside of the goal. Appalachian held the 2-0 lead going into the break.
George Mason came away with just three shots on goal in the contest, two of which came in the second period. Chasteen stopped both attempts in the 69th minute and later as time was winding down at 89'. Appalachian tacked on its third goal with 12 minutes left to play when Ian Bennett's free-kick was loose and Harris provided the rest with the second score to give Appalachian a commanding 3-0 advantage.
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