Sept. 1, 2009

Box Score

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - It didn't take Lafayette men's soccer rookie Josh Brown long to make an impact as he netted the lone goal in a 1-0 season-opening win at Rider. Goalie Philip Nelson recorded his 12th career shutout to help the Leopards win their fifth straight season opener.

Lafayette (1-0) nearly doubled the Broncs (0-1) in shots (14-8) with freshman Blake Fink accounting for six of those shots. The Leopards also edged Rider 7-3 in corner kicks. Nelson came up with four saves, two in each half, to keep the Broncs off the scoreboard.

Rider goalie Dylan Hastings came up with nine saves, including five in the first half as Lafayette put the pressure on from the start. The Leopards had three early looks at the goal but Hastings made stops on all of them until Brown capitalized on a Rider turnover and found the back of the net unassisted at the 13:32 mark to give his squad the early lead.

The Lafayette defense held Rider to only three shots in the opening half and Nelson came up with a save on a shot by Nico Tramontana with 15 seconds left to preserve the 1-0 Lafayette lead at the midway point.

Nelson and Hastings continued their solid performances in the second half but the Lafayette defense proved stronger as Rider failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities. Nelson made his final save of the night with 10 minutes to play and the Leopards' made sure their first-half goal was all the scoring they needed to come up with the victory.

The Leopards open their home season on Friday with a 7 p.m. match against NJIT.