BOSTON – Suffolk men's soccer saw its season-opening unbeaten stretch come to an end Saturday afternoon as the Rams city rival Emerson took down the blue-and-gold, 3-1, in non-conference play at Rotch Field.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 1 | Emerson 3

RECORDS: Suffolk (2-1-1) | Emerson (2-0-2) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Emerson opened the scoring 12:24 into the action when Theodore Bushara converted a pass from Henry Fogel into the Lions first tally of the day.  

A Rams response came 24 minutes. Matthew Belluardo tucked away a feed from Miguel Varela to level the playing field at 1-all, a score that held when the teams headed into half time

Emerson got to the go-ahead goal from Gregory Kopanezos, who had help from Evan Lee in the 69th minute. An insurance marker came 59 seconds later as Anthony Ramlochan scored unassisted to make it a two-goal margin.  

Belluardo had a chance on target just over five minutes later, but Beckett Hobbs turned that attempt aside to keep the 3-1 advantage in Emerson's favor. 

That would be the only shot on net the rest of the way for the Rams, which sealed their setback fate. 

KEEPING UP WITH THE KEEPERS

• Xander Balog notched three saves in the defeat. 
• Hobbs had two saves in the victory.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Belluardo put away Suffolk's only goal of the afternoon. 
• Varela dished out one assist. 
• Suffolk had the upper hand in overall shots, 15-11, while the Lions put more on target, 6-3. 
• The Rams had 10 corner kick chances and the Lions took seven corners. 

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk and Emerson met for the second straight season, 24th time overall. 
• The Rams moved to 8-15-1 all-time against the Lions. 
• Suffolk moved to 1-0-1 against Emerson with Bill Maddock on the sidelines. 
• Belluardo scored his second goal of the season, seventh of his career. 
• Varela registered his second handout of the year, 11th of his career.  

WHAT'S NEXT?

Suffolk is set to host Framingham State at East Boston Memorial Park's James A. Sartori Stadium Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.