Box Score

LORETTO, Pa. (Sept. 30, 2011) – The Saint Francis University men's soccer team suffered a 1-0 shutout loss in its Northeast Conference season opener versus Fairleigh Dickinson at a muddy Stokes Soccerplex.

37 minutes into the first half, freshman Alex Hainault (Montreal, Quebec/Westwood) picked up his second yellow card of the match, immediately followed by the red card, ejecting him from the contest and forcing the Red Flash (4-4-1, 0-1) to play down a man for the remainder of the game.

“Today is disappointing because we didn't give ourselves the best opportunity to win,” head coach Michael Casper said. “Going down a man so early really put us under pressure and we weren't able to establish any kind of rhythm in the game. I am proud of the way we worked to try to bring the game back. The guys never quit but we need to play a much smarter game and give ourselves the best opportunity to be successful in order to turn games like these into wins.”

At the 67:14 mark, FDU (5-2-1, 1-0) tallied the lone goal of the contest when Miguel Escobar fired a shot from the top left of the box that sailed over a diving Darius Motazed (North Vancouver, Canada/Sentinel Secondary).

The Knights outshot the Red Flash by a wide 17-5 margin, placing eight of those on net, compared to SFU's one taken by Taylor Powers (Petaluma, Calif./Casa Grande). Fairleigh Dickinson also held the advantage in corner kicks, five to three.

With four minutes remaining, the Knights lost a player of its own when Jack McVey picked up his second yellow card of the match, resulting in a red card and an ejection. Shortly after that, Saint Francis got its best scoring chance of the match when David Butler (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) blasted a shot from in front of the net that was blocked by an FDU defender.

Motazed suffered the loss in goal, despite making a season-high seven saves.

Saint Francis continues NEC action this Sunday Oct. 2 when Sacred Heart visits Loretto for a 1 p.m. start time.