NC State opened the 2023 soccer campaign with an impressive 3-1 win over Radford in front of 1,447 fans at Dail Soccer Field.
Newcomer
Scotty Taylor, a Duke transfer, got the Pack (1-0) on the board in his red and white debut.
Taylor found the back of the net with 24:23 showing on the clock in the first half off an assist from another newcomer, true freshman
Yuta Toya.
NC State got a pair of second half goals from
Luke Hille (
Jarvis Cleal) and
Junior Nare to improve to 7-4-0 all-time versus the Highlanders.
"I was really pleased in terms of the identity, the guys working," Pack head coach George Kiefer said. "The toughness, the competing side of it, I thought they were pretty relentless in that regard."
NC State was definitely the aggressor, with 19 shot attempts versus just two for Radford (0-0), whose only goal in the second half came when Alex Kryazhev snuck behind the Pack defense and got one pass
Lucas Hatsios.
Other than that one mishap, Hatsios and the NC State defense formed a wall to keep the Highlanders at bay.
Taylor was one of three new faces in the starting 11 for the Wolfpack, who came into the game missing several players with injuries. Taylor appeared in 66 contests for the Blue Devils, but has looked right at home through the preseason and regular season opener.
NC State has won its season-opener in the Kiefer era six of the seven seasons he's been in Raleigh. The Pack has now won two straight over the Highlanders. The win was the 45th for Kiefer in Raleigh and the 206th win in his career.
Up next: NC State will host USC Update on Monday at 7 pm.
https://gopack.com/news/2023/8/25/mens-soccer-nc-state-opens-2023-season-with-3-1-win-over-radford 