Slippery Rock men’s soccer defeated D’Youville University 1-0 Thursday in their season opener at James Egli Field.
The first half remained scoreless after ten total shot attempts from both teams. The first move came from D’Youville’s midfielder just ten minutes in, but the shot was blocked by Troy Nine.
This was Nine’s first game with Slippery Rock. He faced 13 shots and allowed none.
After a corner kick and a foul on the Saints, Aashi Pandher delivered The Rock’s first shot but came up empty.
The junior forwarder ranked fourth on the team with 17 shots, nine of which were placed on target.
Pander took another shot to end the half, which was blocked by Matthew Solorio.
After a foul on D’Youville, Jimmy Irani scored for the White and Green with an assist from Zsombor Retfalvi and Cornelis Dedecker under five minutes into the second half. This was Irani’s first goal in his SRU career.
Another shot attempt came just minutes after the goal from Retfalvi, but was blocked by Solorio.
A corner kick followed by a shot attempt came from the Saints 15 minutes into the second half, but nothing came of it.
D’Youville delivered five more shot attempts in the remainder of the game and came up empty.
Slippery Rock took their first win of the season and will return to their home field on Wednesday to take on Walsh University.
