Men’s soccer opens season with victory

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The University of Dallas men’s soccer team christened their new home field and the start of their 2018 campaign with a 2-0 victory over Sul Ross State University. The Crusaders have won six of their last seven season openers.

Senior defender, Sean Taylor, scored the first goal of his career off a corner kick from Sophomore midfielder Chase Reynolds, giving the Crusaders the lead at the 27th minute. Senior midfielder Andrew Ciancone scored the second of Dallas’s goals in the 52nd minute. Ciancone was also assisted by Reynolds.

Sophomore goalkeeper, Sean Carlin, saved the only Sul Ross shot on goal in his first clean sheet of the season.

“From my point of view, I see us as a strong young team with a lot of veterans and some new freshman ready to make some big time differences,” Carlin said.

Tensions ran high in the second half with 28 fouls and seven cards between the two teams. Six of the cards were yellow. Sul Ross earned the only red card and ejection.

“Personally, I think we handled ourselves very well in the second half,” Carlin said. “We were composed and only got into conflict when one of our guys went down.”

UD travels to Belton, Texas for their next match against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Sunday, Sept. 2. Dallas begins conference play on Friday, Sept. 7 against Johnson and Wales University; their first conference game since the 2017 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship.  

“I think everybody is ready to be back in the SCAC championship, but we have to take this season one game at a time,” Carlin said. “As long as we stay disciplined and healthy, I think we have a very good change of challenging Trinity for the SCAC title this year.”

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