WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven men's soccer team dominated from the first whistle to the last en route to a 5-0 shutout of the visiting Dominican Chargers on Sunday afternoon at Kathy Zolad Stadium.
With the sun shining down on the pitch and a capacity crowd supporting from the sidelines, the Blue and Gold took advantage of a pair of mishandled balls inside the Dominican 18-yard box, scoring twice within 32 seconds to take the early edge.
The first tally of the day came from senior Pau Santanach (Barcelona, Spain/Collegi CreaNova) as he collected a loose ball deep inside the box and fired it high right for what would eventually be the game-winning goal. The score against Dominican was his second in as many games in the youthful season.
Again pressuring the Dominican defense and keeper Joshuan Kaandorp just seconds after the restart, the defense failed to clear a ball inside the box where a new face in West Haven, Deni Iljazi (Florence, Italy/Liceo Scientifico) drilled home for the 2-0 lead before most in the stadium had finished celebrating the first goal of the day.
New Haven would manage two more shots in the opening half, the remaining two not threatening the Dominican keeper. On the opposite side of the pitch, Dominican mustered three first half shots, none of which forced keeper Archie Watts (Bristol, England/SGS College), who made his debut as a New Haven Charger, into action.
After the break, New Haven kept the pressure on Dominican, registering the first five shots of the frame, all withing the first 16 minutes of action. One of those attempts, a boot towards the lower right corner forced Kaandorp to make his first save of the day.
New Haven broke through again just inside the 75th minute when Albert Porqueras (Barcelona, Spain/IES Jaume Savador I Pedrol) corralled a loose ball off a blocked shot from Thomas Lyden (Thornwood, N.Y./Westlake) with Porqueras firing the rebound easily to the back of the net for his first points of the season.
Despite his blocked attempt that Porqueras finished off, Lyden would come up clutch four minutes later when he provided the helper from the fourth goal of the day that came off the boot of Sandro Branquinho (Covilha, Portugal/Wright State). Inside of seven minutes to play, Lyden would do it again, this time with a flick over the top of the defense that Daniel Santos (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) tracked down and easily score with the Dominican keeper coming out to play the ball.
New Haven will close out its season-opening three-game home stand on Wednesday night, heading back under the lights for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff against in-state rival Bridgeport. All of the action from Kathy Zolad Stadium will be available live on Flo Sports, home of NE10 Now.
