STATESBORO, GA --- Howard men's soccer earned a milestone victory on Saturday evening, besting Georgia Southern, 2-1, to claim its first ever win in Sun Belt Conference play. The team's benchmark win now has the Bison in first place in the conference, ahead of Hartwick College by one in the loss column (1-0-1 vs 1-1-1).

Howard (2-11-2, 1-0-1 SBC) earned back-to-back victories for the first time since defeating Adelphi and Goldey-Beacom on October 21 & 27, 2012 and are 2-2-1 in their last five games after going 0-9-1 in the previous ten games.

After a scoreless first half, Georgia Southern (5-6-0, 1-1-0 SBC) got on the board first in the 49th minute thanks to an unassisted goal from Eric Dinka. The junior forward was able to leak out on a breakaway and sent one home from the center of the box.

About eight minutes later (57'), Howard freshman forward Kyle Celestine tied the game at 1-1 after he gathered  a blocked shot, turned to create separation and scored. Celeste would score the eventual game winner eleven minutes after that (68') as he took a free kick pass from senior defender Donny-Joshua Felix and flicked it over the head of GSU goalkeeper Jack Falle.

Although Georgia Southern took a higher volume of shots and corner kicks in the game (18 shots to Howard's 8; 13 corners to Howard's eight), the Bison were able to win with effeciency. Overall, HU's pair of goals represent 25 percent of their total shots (2-of-8) compared to 5.5 percent of GSU's shots (1-of-18).

Howard will take a quick break from Sun Belt competition to play its final non-conference match of the season, a 7 p.m. tilt with Wake Forest University on October 21 in Winston-Salem, NC.