Men's Soccer Opens Season With 1-0 Win Over SUNY Poly

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The University of Saint Joseph (USJ) men's soccer team opened the 2022 season in style with a 1-0 triumph over the SUNY Poly Wildcats on a picture-perfect Thursday evening at the USJ Soccer Field in West Hartford. Senior midfielder Charles Mputu (East Hartford, Conn.) scored the lone goal of the match in the 44th minute to lift the Blue Jays to victory.

GAME INFORMATION
Score: USJ 1, SUNY Poly 0
Records: USJ (1-0-0), SUNY Poly (0-1-0)
Location: USJ Soccer Field (West Hartford, Conn.)

KEY MOMENTS

• The lone goal of the match occurred just before the end of the first half at the 43:54 mark. Mputu corralled the ball near midfield and drove up the center of the field before flicking a pass out toward the right corner to graduate senior teammate DeAnte Anderson (Bloomfield, Conn.). On his first touch, Anderson sliced a low firm pass across the goalmouth to find Mputu, who kept charging toward the net after his pass, and he swept it with the right foot into the lower-left corner of the net for what would prove to hold as the game-winning goal.

QUOTABLE

"There were a lot of positives to take away from tonight. We are happy with the result and keeping SUNY Poly from scoring was one of our goals going into the match. I felt we defended very well when we needed to. There was some excellent play in the first half and we threatened frequently before a great combination play between Charles and DeAnte officially got us on the board. We were a little careless with the ball at times in the second half so we will clean that up and improve as we progress into conference play," said head coach Paul Wright.

NOTES

• USJ has never lost a season-opening game in program history (4-0). They own a 17-2 advantage in goal differential in those contests. 
• It marked the first meeting between the two teams in program history.
• Senior goalkeeper Matthew Goebel (Norton, Mass.) made three stops between the pipes for USJ to earn the shutout victory.
• Saint Joseph outshot SUNY Poly, 17-6, and held a 6-2 advantage in corner kicks.

UP NEXT

Men's soccer returns back to the pitch on Saturday, September 3 and hosts Framingham State University at 7:00 p.m. on the USJ Soccer Field. Admission to all USJ regular-season games is free of charge. Fans who cannot make it to matches in person can watch all of the action live and on demand by visiting https://portal.stretchinternet.com/usj/.