WESTON, Mass. - Freshman forward Ken Niyonzima (Burlington, Mass.) chose the perfect time to tally his first collegiate goal on Thursday afternoon, lifting the Regis (Mass.) men's soccer team to a 4-3 Opening Day victory over Albertus Magnus.
A stellar through ball from junior midfielder David Venegas (Escondido, Calif.) found the foot of Niyonzima in the box in the 79th minute, and the forward tapped it past Albertus keeper Joe Russo (North Haven, Conn.) to give the Pride the late lead.
In a last ditch effort to find the equalizer, the Falcons were awarded a free kick at the top of the box in the 88th minute, but an acrobatic diving save by Manny Santiago (Bristol, Conn.) on a curling shot by Alexis Garcia-Romero (West Haven, Conn.) secured the Pride win. The save was one of Santiago's five, as he tacked on to his program record for career goalkeeping victories with number 21.
Albertus Magnus opened the scoring early in the first half when Justyn Broderick (Orange, Conn.) got his head on a Brayan Lucero (East Haven, Conn.) corner and snuck it just past the out-stretched fingers of Santiago.
Regis had a quick response, however, as Litchie Barbosa (Boston, Mass.) netted his first goal of the season in the 16th minute. With a free kick from the top of the box, Barbosa curled it around the wall and the keeper to even the score. The Pride kept their foot on the gas as Don Gomez (Lynn, Mass.) tallied a goal of his own off a rebound eight minutes later to take a 2-1 lead.
The Pride still wasn't finished in the half, as slick ball movement got the ball up the field to Dillon Lanctot (Somersworth, N.H.), who was able to turn around and fire one into the bottom corner of the net to increase the Pride lead to two in the 30th minute.
Albertus Magnus came out to a flying start to open off the second half, as again the Falcons were able to capitalize on a 49th minute corner kick. Matt Mueller (Cheshire, Conn.) got his head to yet another Lucero corner, tapping it into a wide open net to cut the Regis lead in half. The Falcons found the equalizer in the 69th minute, as Ritchy Jean Pierre (Fairfield, Conn.) finished off a 2-on-1 by firing one past the dive of Santiago. Broderick picked up the assist on the game-tying tally. The comeback hopes, however, were shot down ten minutes later by the Niyonzima goal that proved to be the game-winner.
With the opening day victory, the Pride improve to 1-0-0 on the season, while the Falcons drop to 0-1-0. Regis returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 3 when they host Anna Maria at 12:00 p.m., while Albertus will look to pick up their first win of the season when they take on Brooklyn at home on Saturday.
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