EAST BOSTON – Leonardo Acosta buried a pair of goals to lead Suffolk men's soccer over Rivier, 3-1, in the team's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener Saturday afternoon at James A. Sartori Stadium at East Boston Memorial Park.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 3, Rivier 1
RECORDS: Suffolk (0-3, 0-0 GNAC) | Rivier (0-2, 0-0 GNAC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Jackson Hines and James Fisher connected for the first score of the day nearly 20 minutes into the action. Inside the right 50-yard line. Hines lofted a go-ahead pass to Fisher who was at the 25 with a Raiders defender playing man-on-man coverage. The Ram's forward beat out his opponent to the 20, picked up the rock and let it fly over Collin Deyarmin's gloves into the left of the net to give the blue-and-gold a one-goal edge.
With just under 10 minutes remaining in the first frame, Jordan Casey and Acosta teamed up for a goal. Casey crossed the ball into the middle of the pack in front of Rivier's goal where Acosta picked up the pieces and tucked it away into the bottom right to give the hosts a two-goal lead.
Suffolk maintained its momentum in the second stanza and added to its cushion 15 minutes in. Acosta collected his second strike of the day on a beautiful feed from Sal Perrotto. With Acosta a the mid 25-yard line, Perrotto tapped it over to the Rams' rookie who finished to the left of Deyarmin to turn it into a 3-0 Suffolk score.
Rivier eliminated the shutout 16 minutes later. Adly Francois took a free-kick from 25-yards out and Pedro Lopez made the leap and used his head to erase the Rams' cleansheet in the 77th minute.
The score held from there and Suffolk secured its first victory of the season.
KEEPING UP WITH THE KEEPERS
- David Haines earned the victory with a three-save effort.
- Deyarmin made 11 stops in the setback.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Acosta paced Suffolk's offense with two goals with Fisher accounting for the other.
- Hines and Casey each dished out one assist apiece.
- Suffolk held advantages in shots, 27-6, including a 14-4 shot on net edge, as well as corners, 5-1.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk won its first GNAC opener since 2016.
- The Rams moved to 5-9-2 all-time in GNAC openers.
- Suffolk and Rivier battled in the first conference contest of the season for the sixth time overall. The Rams moved to 4-2-0 in league openers against the Raiders.
- Fisher and Hines recorded their first points of the season. The former notched his first goal in his junior campaign, while the later assisted on a strike for the first time in 2018.
- Acosta has recorded at least one point in three of Suffolk's four games this season.
- Acosta notched a career-high two goals.
- Casey is on a two-game point streak. In that stretch, he has produced one goal and one assist.
POST-GAME PIC
COMING UP
Suffolk returns to the road Tuesday, Sept. 11 as it makes the trip to Colby Sawyer for a conference-clash at 4 p.m.
