TEANECK, N.J. – On the strength of three goals and a second-half shutout, the Fairleigh Dickinson men's soccer team carried its winning momentum into Sunday's home opener, defeating Gonzaga in a 3-1 match.
 
The Knights (3-1) surrendered the first goal of the match, but sophomore Joshua Ferreira answered the Bulldogs (0-4) score with his first tally of the season to make it a 1-1 game at halftime. FDU then had the upper hand in the second half, with sophomore Ideal Shefqeti providing the go-ahead score in the 52nd minute and junior Diego Arribas adding an insurance goal six minutes later.
 
"It's great to win our home opener, and especially nice to beat Gonzaga and gain some revenge for FDU after they beat us in March Madness," head coach Seth Roland said after the match. "It capped off a pretty good weekend for us after beating UConn on Friday night. Good to get a win at home and try to make FDU a tough place to play."
 
FDU outshot Gonzaga in the match 14-10, with six shots on target compared to only three for Gonzaga. Junior goalkeeper Jahmali Waite made a save in each half, and the backline of sophomore Anthony Herbert, junior Adrian Barajas, junior Rocky Garretson and freshman Jared Subarsky kept Gonzaga off the board in the later half.
 
"It's not great that we allowed them to take the early lead on a lack of concentration, but the mentality has been good so far," Roland continued. "We came back and tied it before halftime and then picked up the tempo in the second half, pressured them more."
 
Knights senior Daniel Lasarte fired the first shot of the match three minutes in, but it was Gonzaga who struck first with a goal in the 10th minute by Theo O'Malley. The Bulldogs kept on the attack with another shot headed toward goal a minute later that was saved by Waite.
 
FDU made some substitutions after the Gonzaga goal that helped to spark the home team 25 minutes into the match. Ferreira, one of the entering subs, put the first FDU shot on goal in the 30th minute, and he later cut up the field to win possession of the ball with the Gonzaga keeper drawn out away from the goal, allowing the sophomore to evade the keeper and loft a shot into the net for his first goal of the year.
 
The Knights kept on the attack, with freshman Peter Kozlej lining up a shot on goal that was saved, and Ferreira and Barajas each attempted tries to add to the FDU total as well before halftime.
 
The Burgundy and Blue crafted a nice attacking chance early in the second half, with Barajas leading Subarsky with a pass to start the play. Subarsky then fed the ball to Shefqeti, who fired a long shot from 30 yards out that hit the upper right 90 for his first goal of the season, giving the Knights the 2-1 advantage. Barajas and Subarsky each earned their first career assists on the Shefqeti goal as well.
 
Five minutes later, Arribas made a series of nifty moves to evade Bulldog defenders and was fouled in the box to set up a penalty kick. The junior lined his shot right and the keeper dove the other way, providing Arribas with his third goal of the season and second game in a row with a score.
 
Gonzaga made pushes to counter, taking seven shots over the final 30 minutes of play, but the Knight defense did a good job to limit the chances on goal to just one in the 83rd minute that Waite saved.  
 
Subarsky in his collegiate debut played 66 minutes off the bench on defense, while Ferreira (40 minutes) and Kozlej (42) each played significant minutes as reserves as well. Freshman Janbi Kaghado also made his FDU debut in the second half, coming off the bench for eight minutes of play.
 
"It was a great effort by the guys," Roland added. "We were playing basically 36 hours after our UConn game, so we needed fresh legs. We subbed barely at all at UConn, so we needed to sub more today and I'm pleased with the effort our reserves gave us. We needed that lift today, and they showed that we have depth as well as good play from our starters."
 
The Knights have now won their home opener in each of the last three seasons as well as in six of their last seven years overall.
 
FDU goes back on the road for its next match, traveling to play at Cornell on Saturday, September 14, at 5 p.m. The Knights then return home for consecutive matches, first facing NJIT on September 17 and then Princeton on September 21, with both games scheduled to start at 7 p.m.