Eastern Mennonite came up just short in a home loss to ODAC rival Lynchburg on Saturday night, losing 2-1 in men's soccer action.  The Royals had two great scoring chances in the final minutes but were defeated by a matter of inches.

The Hornets earned a 2-0 lead by the 71st minute, but true to EMU's style this year, the men didn't give up.  Senior Mark Mast (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) netted his team-leading fourth goal of the season in the 77th minute.  Shortly after a Lynchburg yellow card, Mast pushed up the left side and got around his defender.  He made a nice move to get LC's keeper out and on the ground, before dribbling past him and hitting the net to make it 2-1.

Lynchburg took a couple of shots with 10 minutes to play, but EMU kept coming.  After a Hornet's foul just outside of the box with six minutes left, defender Joao Downs (Limon, Costa Rica/Colegio de Limon Diurno) rifled a free kick from 19 yards out just over the goal.  Then with three minutes on the clock, Juan Luna (Mount Jackson, Va./Stonewall Jackson) pushed a shot out of the reach of LC's keeper, but the ball hit the cross bar and deflected out.

That was it for shots, as the teams traded nothing but fouls over  the final seconds of the Lynchburg win.

The Hornets took 25 shots in the game, although only nine were on goal.  EMU put half of their 10 shots on target.

David Hooley (Bluffton, Ohio/Bluffton) had a team high two shots on goal.  Andrew Yoder (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) was tagged for both of LC's goals and made six saves.  Matthew Overacker (Mount Crawford, Va./Turner Ashby) earned one stop in his 16 minutes of playing time.

The Royals will try to improve on their 3-5-2 record on Wednesday when they host Washington and Lee.  They will also be looking for their first ODAC win in the game which starts at 4:00pm.

Coach Roger Mast talks about the game of inches against Lynhcburg: