RADFORD – A skittish start that led to a goal just after kickoff was a lesson learned for the Radford men's soccer team Wednesday night.  But it turned out to be a costly lesson.

Charlie Reiter's goal 22 seconds into the match gave Davidson the early edge, as the Wildcats went on for a 2-0 win over the Highlanders in non-conference men's soccer at Cupp Stadium.

"Lessons should be learned from that," head coach Spencer Smith said.  "Unfortunately, that start held us back the rest of the night."

Radford (2-2-0) came out loose defensively, and Reiter capitalized.  He collected a loose ball and hit a strike from five yards beyond the penalty box into the upper corner of the net, the difference for Davidson (3-1-0) and a mistake that put the Highlanders in an early hole.

"They came right down the middle of the park, and we were slow and just not ready for the opening whistle," Smith said. "When you go down a goal 20 seconds in, it's just not the way you want to start."

Wednesday's night's game looked different from the get-go than Friday's home opener, highlighted by an early goal, a first half that Smith called Radford's best soccer of the year.

The Wildcats added another in the 56th when Reiter found Machel Turner on a thru ball to the middle, and Turner beat his defender and finished to give Davidson a 2-0 lead.

Radford was limited offensively all night.  The Highlanders had their best opportunity in the 48th minute when a corner kick service found sophomore Joe Baxter (Richmond, Va./James River) in the box, but his header attempt was cleared off the goal line by Davidson's Alex Caskey.

"It was a combination of Davidson's excellent organization on defense, and the fact that we didn't have enough numbers in the box tonight," Smith said.

In the loss, those lessons came at the right time for Radford, which opens Big South play on Saturday night at Liberty with a 7 p.m. kickoff.

"I think we're learning that we've got to play for the full 90 minutes.  For the most part, we've shown that we can come out of the gate and play well.  But we have yet to put together that complete effort. "