DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Sept. 5, 2019) – Powered by goals from senior Kevin Rodriguez (Queens, N.Y./ASA College) and freshman Matthias Kuhn (Viernheim, Germany/University of Mannheim), the No. 24 Mercy College men's soccer team opened their 2019 season with a 2-0 victory over Assumption College on Thursday afternoon at Mercy Field.

The Mavericks (1-0) win their season opener for the second straight year, while the Greyhounds (0-1) drop their season opener.

Rodriguez scored his first goal of the year and Kuhn scored his first collegiate goal. Sophomore Aaron Denk-Gracia (Mannheim, Germany/Liselotte-Gymnasium Mannheim) added an assist and sophomore Rainiero Salas (Panama City, Panama/Alderson Broaddus University) also dished out an assist. Junior Joel Serrano (Arecibo, P.R./Marshalltown CC) made four saves to post a shutout in his Mercy debut.

Assumption was led by Ruben Faria who had a team-high three shots. Sebastian Jimenez made four saves to take the loss.

The first half was scoreless with Mercy holding a 6-5 edge in shots, but Assumption recorded six out of the seven corner kicks in the half.

The score remained 0-0 until the 52nd minute when Denk-Gracia fed Rodriguez a ball inside the box and the senior fired into the upper right corner to make it 1-0.

Mercy continued to apply pressure and a shot by senior Santiago Corral (Buenos Aires, Argentina/Instituto Francesco Faa Di Bruno) was stopped by a defender in the 61st minute. The Mavericks made it 2-0 in the 76th minute when Salas took a free kick from outside the box and Kuhn headed the ball into the net to give Mercy an insurance goal.

Serrano made two more saves to keep the Greyhounds off the board, giving Mercy the season-opening win.

Mercy held a 16-9 edge in shots and Assumption held an 8-4 advantage in corner kicks.

Head Coach Pedro Velazquez and the Mavericks look to improve to 2-0 when they play at Southern Connecticut State on Saturday, September 7th at 2 p.m.