The men's soccer team recorded their first victory of the season, defeating the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights 3-0, on Sept. 12.
The Pirates' record on the season is now 1-2-1.
"Winning is important not only for the result," head coach Manny Schellscheidt said. "It helps the moral of the team and the players' self-confidence."
The win also was the first shutout of the year for the Hall behind the goaltending of freshman Kevin Bonder.
In the game, Bonder made six saves including one early in the game from seven yards out to the Knights graduate player Marco Ciklic, which Bonder deflected out of play.
"He did what he had to," Schellscheidt said. "He has the confidence of the team right now."
To go along with the shutout, senior midfielder Steven Rose scored two goals, giving him three on the season.
Rose's first goal gave the Pirates the 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute when he headed in a corner from freshman Victor Manosalvas.
Rose also put away a pass from senior Samuel Petrone inside the box in the 86th minute, scoring the final goal of the game for the Pirates, putting the Hall up 3-0.
Senior Bryan Longo scored the second goal of the game in the 53rd minute by beating the goalie one on one after a pass from senior Dritan Sela.
"We were able to control the game," Schellscheidt said. "I'm not so happy with the number of goals we scored with the chances we had, but we were able to keep the pressure on them."
The chances that the Knights had most of the game came from the counter attack, accounting for most of their 14 shots.
"You always have to worry about the counter," Schellscheidt said. "It's just a result of how aggressive we were playing on offensive but our back line came through."
The defense was the big difference in the Hall's home opening 3-1 loss against Boston University Sept. 10.
"[Boston] was able to get behind us on defense," Schellscheidt said. "Its not good, we can't allow teams to do that."
After scoring the first goal of the game from a free kick off the foot of senior Brayan Martinez 25 yards from the goal the Pirates were held scoreless.
Boston tied the game 1-1 in the 28th minute with Terrier junior Stephen Knox beating Pirate senior Sean Carr one on one.
"I was happy to see us get the first goal," Schellscheidt said. "Then to just give it away is a big letdown."
The game would go into halftime tied, but Boston took the lead for good in the 60th minute when again Carr was left one on one against the Terriers' attacker giving Boston the 2-1 lead.
Boston added a third goal to go up 3-1 with Terrier Anthony Ciccone scoring off a sharp angle on the left side of the box.
The men's soccer team goes for their second consecutive victory against Monmouth at Owen T. Carroll field Sept. 17.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at Stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
