17 minutes into play on a rain soaked field, Mount Ida College men's soccer freshman Michael Templeton (Charlestown, NH/Fall Mountain) netted the first of three Mustang scores to capitalize on their first victory (3-0) of the season over visiting Eastern Nazarene College Wednesday afternoon in Newton, Massachusetts in a non-conference bid.
The Mustangs snatch their first win of 2011 improving to 1-2-0 overall while the Lions continue their slide falling to 0-3-0. Neither team has yet to compete in a conference bid for the season.
Templeton put the Mustangs on the board first on a deflection in the box that ricocheted off Lions goalkeeper Jake Johnson (Mount Bethel, PA/Bangor) right to Templeton's feet who poked a shot into the top left corner for the one nil (1-0) lead.
The powerful offensive attack by Mount Ida did not let up converting on another attempt off a corner kick. Sophomore Carlos Rojas (Stamford, CT/Westhill) fed a well placed ball to the center of the box on a low lining kick finding the head of freshman forward Nick Rivas-Vasquez (Hamden, CT/Hamden). Rivas-Vasquez redirected the pass into the left corner for the 2-0 advantage heading into the break.
The Eastern Nazarene offense was unidentifiable throughout the second half while the Mustangs continued to pound the net.
In the 70th minute of play following a Lion foul, Rojas lined up an indirect kick from behind the box on the right hand side. After a first touch to set the kick up by sophomore Kevin Custodio (Dartmouth, MA/Greater New Bedford), Rojas curled a shot towards the back left post that would beat the keeper up high inflating the advantage to 3-0.
The Mustangs rode out the rest of the half with ease collecting their first victory of 2011 under the direction of second year head coach Joseph Campbell.
Although each team took the same amount of shots for the contest, the Mustangs ultimately prevailed scoring three. Mount Ida led the physical game with 13 fouls while the visitors registered seven with not one card pulled for the game.
Mount Ida goaltender freshman Mat Pils (Monroe, CT/Masuk) denied six Lion shots while Johnson saved five Mustang attempts.
The Mustangs will host their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) contest this coming Sunday against visiting Rivier College with game time slated for 1:00 p.m.