The Fairleigh Dickinson men's soccer team defeated Iona 3-2 Monday night in a scrimmage at University Stadium in Teaneck, NJ.  The scrimmage featured a pair of 45 minutes halves and was capped by a 20 minute period.

At the end of 90 minutes, FDU led 3-1 before the Gaels scored a goal early in the final 20 minutes.

The Knights dominated most of the way.  Despite playing most of the half in Iona territory, FDU found itself down 1-0.  However, senior Jack McVey (Douglas, Isle of Man/St. Ninian’s ) erased the deficit as he scored on a free kick from about 22 yards out to tie the game at one.

Later on in the first half, freshman Yusuf Hamza (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) delivered a beautiful cross from the left side to senior Antony Moore (Douglas, Isle of Man/St. Ninian’s ) who found the back of the net to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.

Early in the second half, senior Karlis Putans (Riga, Latvia/University of Latvia) delivered a great ball to Hamza on the right side of the field, and the rookie scored from around 20 yards out to extend FDU's lead to 3-1.

“I thought this was a good opportunity to see what we did well and the things we need to work on,” Head Coach Seth Roland said.  “Hopefully, we will get better each day in practice and every game.   It was a good start to our competitive season as a scrimmage, and we learned a lot tonight.  Hopefully, we will continue to go forward and are building a foundation that can lead us to be successful this season.”

The Knights will play one more scrimmage this Saturday at Seton Hall before kicking off its 2012 season with a home match against Stony Brook on Aug. 24 at 7:00 p.m.  A full season preview will be posted on www.fduknights.com before the season opener.