The Fairleigh Dickinson University men's soccer team shut out visiting Bryant on Sunday afternoon, defeating the Bulldogs 3-0 at University Stadium. The Knights improve to 6-8-1 overall, including a 3-3-1 mark in Northeast Conference play, while the Bulldogs fall to 3-12-5 overall and 1-6-0 in league action.
The Knights pulled ahead in the 22nd minute as sophomore Cristian Vasconez found freshman Dominic Reinold (Wesseling, Germany/Gesamtschule Rodenkirchen). The play started as Vasconez dribbled down the right sideline and sent a cross that landed in front of the left side of the net, which Reinold picked up and tapped it in to put the Knights ahead, 1-0. The goal was Reinold's seventh of the season and the assist was Vasconez's fourth of the season.
Reinold scored his second goal of the game off a pass from freshman Jeffrey Barrenechea (Lodi, N.J./Paramus Catholic) in the 85th minute. Barrenechea dribbled down the right line and fired a pass off to Reinold, who was in front of the right side of the goal. He gathered the ball and then, as the Bryant goalkeeper came out to defend, sent it across the net into the left bottom corner.
In the 88th minute, the Knights added to their lead to make the final 3-0 as senior Leslie Ayafor (Lauderhill, FL/Manchester Arts) scored his second goal of the season off a pass from Reinold, who has 20 points this season to lead the team. Ayafor collected the pass on the left side of the box and shot it into the left bottom corner from six yards out.
Junior Majdi Zaineh (Clifton, NJ/Clifton) made two saves in goal to pick up his fifth win of the season and post his third shutout. Matt Miscione made four saves between the posts for the Bulldogs.
FDU out-shot Bryant, 16-6, and held a 4-2 advantage in corner kicks.
The Knights honored their 11 graduating seniors before the start of the final home regular season game: Leslie Ayafor (Lauderhill, FL/Manchester Arts), Valcone "Boo" Barrett, Nicholas Canderan (Ocean City, NJ/South Brunswick), Chris Faraone (Jamesburg, NJ/Union Catholic Regional), Fernando Bo Huthmacher (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Da Lagoa), Sergio Munoz (Linden, NJ/Linden), Matt Palmieri (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's Boys), Vin Reinecke (Toms River, NJ/Archbishop Williams), Ramandeep Singh (Hackensack, NJ/Hackensack), Carl Spence (St. Catherine, Jamaica/Meadowbrook) and Serge Zulu (Longueuil, Quebec/College Francais).
"I'm pleased with how we played today against a hard-working Bryant team," said Head Coach Seth Roland. "It's nice to get the win and three points."
FDU is back in action on October 30 at Long Island at 3:30 p.m.
