Box Score in HTML Format
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Led by two terrific plays from senior
Patrick Burns late in the game, the ninth-ranked Christopher Newport men's soccer team opened the Capital Athletic Conference season with a 2-0 win over York College of Pennsylvania on Saturday night. The Captains improved to 7-2-0 overall, with a 1-0-0 mark against the conference, while York falls to 3-5-1, 0-1-0.
Coming into Saturday's matchup, the two teams had played three straight head-to-head battles to a draw and had a long history of tight matchups against eachother. Saturday's game would not be an outlier, despite the 2-0 shutout in the final score, as the two teams battled from the opening whistle.
Even after a red card gave the Captains a man advantage late in the first half, the Spartans handled the increased pressure for the majority of the second half. The defense would bend, but not break, until the 75th minute. After a shot by the Spartans went wide, head coach
Steve Shaw sent Burns and senior
Jimmy Grace back into the game, and the level was raised from the moment they stepped back onto the field.
Just a minute and a half after checking back in, the two would connect on the eventual gamewinner. With the ball, Burns drove by one defender down the right side, and powered through a slide tackle by a second defender. After reaching the ball just before a third, he poked a pass into the box for Grace, who delivered a perfectly placed one-timer shot into the left corner of the goal. Grace has been the hot foot for CNU and with the goal, had factored into four of the last five scores for the Captains.
After taking the lead, CNU would continue to push for an insurance goal, which would come in the 83rd minute. After a throw-in down the left side, Burns took over. He collected the pass, turned on one defender and dribbled past two more before leveling his eyes and torching the back of the net with a rocket shot from just inside the top of the box.
CNU held a 14-2 advantage in shots after halftime, while owning a 17-5 edge for the game. The Captains also took nine corner kicks to the Spartans three, while forcing Charlie Johnson, the York keeper, to make six saves. Pedini closed out the shutout without facing a shot on-goal, earning his fourth shutout of the season.
The Captains will close out non-conference play in their next contest, hosting Randolph College on Wednesday, September 28, with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 pm.
