A Quick Look
Freshman
Denis Fleming (Pearl River/Pearl River) certainly made a splash in his collegiate debut notching a pair of goals to lead the SUNY Oneonta men's soccer team to a 2-1 victory in its 2019 season opener in front of the home crowd.
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The Inside Story
Today's score is misleading as Oneonta really controlled the pace of play for most of the 90 minutes. Outshooting the Scarlet Raiders 22-11 in the match including 14-8 in the first half, the score could have easily been three or four goals for the host. The one factor keeping the score close was the play of Rutgers' keeper who made more than one diving save from shots close in.
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"That's a good start for us," said Head Coach
Iain Byrne. "We were lively throughout the first half and created numerous chances. We knew Rutgers would come back, but we just managed to do enough to see out the game."
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After generating shot after shot throughout the opening half, the Red Dragons finally broke through late. Senior
Witman Hernandez (Huntington/Walt Whitman) freed himself from a defender inside the box before sliding a pass across to Fleming, who was in the middle. Fleming took one touch and fired a shot past the Rutgers keeper for the 1-0 lead.
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Rutgers was awarded a penalty kick in the 54
th minute, which was taken by Ryan Silva. Silva stepped up a took his shot that was saved by
Francesco Scotti (Commack/Commack). On the rebound, Silva had a wide open goal, but shot it high off the cross bar.
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Seven minutes later, the Scarlet Knights tied the score on a restart. Joe Alba sent the ball into the goal area from the right flank where Anthony Oliveira was just able to get his foot on the ball to chip it just over the head of Scotti.
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In the 76
th minute, Fleming out-battled a couple of defenders for a ball in the box before taking a shot with his left foot that skipped past keeper for the eventual game-winner.
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Just the Stats
In addition to outshooting the Scarlet Knights, Oneonta held an 8-3 advantage on corner kicks including a 5-1 advantage in the second half. Scotti picked up his initial win of 2019 making six saves while Andres Medina took the loss making seven saves.
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What's Next
Oneonta will be right back at it tomorrow afternoon when they host Farmingdale State at 2pm on Red Dragon Field.
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