FARMVILLE, Va. – Rain and lightning forced Longwood and VMI into the locker room for nearly an hour at halftime Friday night.
 
The Lancers made sure it was worth the wait.
 
Powered by goals from four different players, Longwood (2-1-0) shook off a lengthy delay to erupt for four goals after halftime and cruise to a 5-1 win over VMI Wednesday evening at the Longwood Athletics Complex.
 
Junior midfielder Ander Etxaniz provided two of those strikes, including the first-half game-winner, while redshirt senior Willy Miezan was the sparkplug to Longwood's second-half surge with a goal and an assist in the first 11 minutes after the teams returned to the field after halftime.
 
The five goals are Longwood's most in a game since a 6-2 win over Big South foe Campbell Oct. 1, 2016 and tied for the program's second most since making the jump to the Division I level in 2004. They also lifted the Lancers to their second straight home win at the Athletics Complex where Longwood has outscored its first two home foes 8-1.
 
"We had a stern talk," said Miezan, whose 49th-minute goal was the 20th of his Longwood career. "We went in the locker room and said we're a better team than what we showed in the first half. We wanted to go back out there, step on it and finish the game off in the first 10 to 15 minutes."
 
That halftime charge filled only a fraction of the 56-minute delay, which began at halftime after a lightning strikes in the area began as the teams headed back to their locker rooms. The lightning continued and rain followed shortly after, shuttering both squads until play resumed at 9:50 p.m.
 
But Longwood stayed hot nonetheless and took charge from the opening whistle. Miezan started the onslaught with a run into the box in the 49th minute where he fielded a perfectly-placed cross from Eli Carr and snuck it past VMI goalkeeper Broden Schull to increase the Lancer lead to 2-0.
 
VMI midfielder Brandon Hornung responded with a strike of his own less than a minute after Miezan's, but the Lancers regained control on the ensuing kickoff and held it the rest of the way.
 
Fordyce got that goal back in the 56th minute when he and Miezan connected for a perfectly executed give-and-go in the box. Fordyce snuck in a pass to Miezan in the semicircle, made his run to the goal, and fielded Miezan's one-touch pass at his feet where he beat Schull one-on-one to make it a 3-1 lead.
 
From there, Etxaniz converted a set-piece off a Filip Hinge corner kick with a  header inside the far post, and Mikel Abando punctuated the blowout with his team-leading third goal of the season in the 86th minute.
 
"We needed halftime to reset a little bit and refocus our efforts," head coach Jon Atkinson said. "The first half was sloppy, and it took a while to get into a rhythm. That's something we're aware of, and we're just trying to find the catalyst out there that's able to springboard the performance we saw in the second half. I thought we got the combination right then, and they responded the rest of the way."
 
Outside of Hornung's goal in the 50th minute in which he wrested away control of the ball in the box and then snuck a shot past Longwood goalkeeper Jacob Reimers, the Lancers did not allow a single shot on goal the entire night. Reimers and fellow keeper Jeff Gates split the shutout, doing so behind a backline led by the starting trio of Jonas Kalchner, Chase Quinn and Dan Ahrens. That unit has allowed just two goals all season, lifting the Lancers to the top of the Big South leaderboard with a 0.67 goals against average.
 
"The growth of a season is like climbing the rough side of a mountain. You have to go through some of those challenges to find yourself, and that's where we are right now," Atkinson said. "We're still a little unsure, we get a little bit lost at times, but we have to keep steadfast, that way we're making progress even though we may not feel it all the time. I told the guys it's about those relationships on the field, the ability to communication and give clarity to the effectiveness of our team.
 
"And once the goals come, it's like the elixir. The confidence goes to a whole different level. We've got to be able to find that elixir quicker in games to allow ourselves to go on and do something special this season. And the potential for that is there."
 
Longwood will continue that journey this Sunday, Sept. 15, when they hit the road again to take on Robert Morris in Pittsburgh, Pa.
 
#GoWood