Clark and the Eagles Defense Step Up Once Again!

Waleska, GA - It was a busy Saturday on the flats of the Reinhardt campus with Football kicking off the day with a home game against the University of Pikeville. The Women's Soccer program followed immediately after the football game with a conference win against the visiting Buffaloes of Milligan University, and the Reinhardt Men ended the day with two of the top teams in the AAC facing each other. Milligan University brought their 6-0-1 AAC record to Reinhardt on a cool October Saturday night with a mindset of going to seven conference wins, but the Eagles would not allow it to happen.

The Eagles, led by goalkeeper Elijah Clark, held the Buffaloes scoreless in the 90-minute battle finishing the game with a 0-0 tie.  Clark ended the game with 4 saves, two of which came in the final minutes of play when Milligan was able to get a few good looks at point-blank range. In the final five minutes of the game, a corner kick by Milligan hit their striker perfectly on a header that went farside goal. It appeared that this would be the one that ended the Eagles' hope in the game, but Clark reached out and snagged the ball to protect his sixth clean sheet of the season.

Offensively, the Eagles never could get a good shot on goal, but they were able to get one good look in the second half off the foot of midfielder, Rafael Pais. Pais fired a low, line-drive rocket from just outside the box, but the Buffaloe's Keeper made a good save to keep the game level.

The final minutes of the game saw Reinhardt's backline do everything they could to protect the goal. Raphael Mospanyuk, Brady Craig, Ivan Patta, and Ian Brunet all had excellent games helping Clark pick up the shutout. Clark was named Man of the Match for Reinhardt by head coach Frankie Ruiz.

At the moment, the Eagles hold the sixth spot in the AAC and still need to play conference leader, Tennessee Wesleyan and the 2nd place Union Bulldogs. They will resume the AAC schedule next Saturday, October 14th with a home game against the Royals of Johnson University.

AAC Standings (as of 10/07/2023)

SCHOOLS	CONF	OVERALL
Tennessee Wesleyan	7-0-1	7-2-3
Union	7-0	11-0
Milligan	6-0-2	9-2-2
Bryan (TN)	6-3	7-6
CIU (SC)	5-2-2	7-2-3
Reinhardt	4-2-1	6-2-4
Montreat	4-3	5-6-1
Truett-McConnell	3-2-2	5-2-2
Pikeville	2-3-2	5-5-2
St. Andrews	2-3-2	3-4-2
Bluefield (VA)	1-7-1	1-9-1
Columbia (SC)	1-7	4-8
Johnson (Tenn.)	0-7-1	0-9-2
Kentucky Christian	0-9	2-10-1