ATLANTA – A trio of first-half goals was too much to overcome as the Case Western Reserve University men's soccer team fell to host Emory University by a 5-2 score during University Athletic Association play on Friday evening at the Woodruff P.E. Center.

The Spartans drop to 3-9-1 overall and 0-3 in the UAA but the schedule doesn't get easier. Case continues conference play and will square off with its fifth nationally-ranked opponent in the last six matches in No. 5 Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) this Sunday, October 14, at 1:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh. With the victory, Emory improves to 7-5-1 and 2-1 in the Association.

The Eagles came out firing with the first of their three goals in the opening half just under three minutes into the contest when Alex Scott headed in a shot via an assist from David Garofalo.

Case knotted the contest just under seven minutes later when senior co-captain and midfielder Eric Erb (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington) scored his team-best fourth goal of the fall with an assist from freshman Chris Cvecko (Erie, Pa./McDowell).

However, Dylan Price scored on an assist from Garofalo near the midway point of the opening half and Alex Scott tallied the third goal in the 29th minute via a helper by Jeffrey Cochran giving the hosts a 3-1 halftime edge.

Out of the intermission, Emory added a pair of tallies from Andrew Natalino in the 47th and 53rd minutes, respectively.

Case sophomore midfielder Bairdy Hansen (Cazenovia, N.Y. / Manlius Pebble Hill) rounded out the scoring when he registered his first career goal in the 59th minute on a helper off the foot of senior back Kostis Theoharides (Brookline, Mass./Brookline). The assist was Theoharides' third of the fall.

In net, sophomore Jay Darby (Flower Mound, Texas/Argyle) played the opening 45:00 of action, while senior Ryan Koepka (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township) had a save during the second stanza for Case. Abe Hannigan got the starting nod and improved to 5-2 in 71:07 with a save between the pipes for the Eagles, while Alex Wong played the last 18:53 and also had a stop.

For the match, Emory outshot Case by a slight 13-9 count, and also held an edge in corner kicks, 10-5.