Men's Soccer 10/27/2017 4:41:00 PM

Saint Francis rolls to 2-0 win

BOX SCORE Loretto, Pa. - The Saint Francis men's soccer team (9-8, 2-4 NEC) dominated for the entirety of the 90 minutes and junior Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) and senior Kaelon Fox (Louisville, KY/St. Xavier (Kentucky)) found the back of the net in a 2-0 win over Sacred Heart on Friday.

Head Coach Antony Moore's Reaction

"It was a great performance," said head coach Antony Moore. "The boys stepped up and took care of business. We will sit back and hope our playoff chances are still alive come next Friday."

Turning Point

It took the Red Flash 63 minutes to break through but they finally did thanks to junior Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township)'s team-leading 12th goal of the season. Freshman Christian KIrchhoff and Fox recorded the assists on the goal.

Highlights

Saint Francis peppered the Sacred Heart goal early and often. Kirchhoff, who terrorized the Pioneer defense, set up the first chance with a cross to Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township). He hit his shot across his body but it was saved in tight by Sacred Heart goalkeeper Robert Strain.
Fox had the next opportunity in the 30th minute but his header from a Lucas Rosa (Atibaia Brazil/COC Atibaia) delivery veered just wide of goal.
SFU's most dangerous opportunity of the half came in the 44th minute. Sophomore Lucas Canineu (Corbin, Ky/Corbin) fed Kirchhoff down the right and he unselfishly squared for senior Troye Kiernan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) but it was just out of reach and he couldn't touch it into the open goal.
Saint Francis junior defender Eric Ganime (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Icaro) almost opened the scoring early in the second half on a mad scramble in front of goal but his shot attempt was cleared off the line.
Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) ended his three-game goalless drought with his goal in the 63rd minute. Fox controlled the ball in the box and dropped it for Kirchhoff. The freshman midfielder picked his head up and picked out Mastrangelo on the far post. He controlled the cross and volleyed past Strain to open the scoring.
Kirchhoff and Mastrangelo almost connected for the second time in the 70th minute but Mastrangelo struck the pass first-time off the underside of the crossbar.
With Saint Francis nursing a 1-0 lead with under five minutes to play, substitute Nicco Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) hit the Pioneers on the counter. He beat his defender inside the box and was taken down by a last-ditch tackle to earn Saint Francis a penalty. Fox stepped up to the spot and buried into the bottom right corner to ice the game away at 2-0.

Notes

Saint Francis's dominance was displayed in the box score as it outshot the Pioneers 25-4.
Shots on goal were 10-0.
Fox and Mario Mastrangelo (Venetia, Pa/Peters Township) both notched five shots. Four of Mastrangelo's five shots were on goal.
The Red Flash are 5-2 at home this season.
Senior goalkeeper Marcus Rojas (Fremont, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory) moved into a tie-for-second in school history in career clean sheets with his 17th. He is tied with Brad Williams and Andrew Garcia.
Mastrangelo is fifth in school history in goals with 26 despite being just a junior.
At the conclusion of the match, SFU's playoff hopes were still alive.