NIAGARA, N.Y. (August 26, 2021) - The UC Riverside men's soccer team kicked off its 2021 season on Thursday evening with a 3-0 win at Niagara.
After a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Highlanders came out of the fall's first opening whistle with 17 shots, plenty of offense and the program's first three-goal outing since the 2018 Big West semifinal.
Caio Guazzelli put in a quality 63 minutes in his second year in the UCR midfield, as the Brazilian accounted for two of the Highlanders' three shots on goal for the opening half of the season.
Guazzelli was a key component to UC Riverside's first half attack as a unit. UCR went into the halftime break holding a 9-2 shot advantage on the Purple Eagles, thanks in large part to the use of the long ball on multiple occasions and several set pieces that presented the Highlanders a chance to break the deadlock. On the other end of the pitch, Carlos Gonzalez was tested but not broken in net for UCR with two saves.
"It's obviously exciting to score multiple goals in the game," head coach Tim Cupello said. "But equally exciting is keeping a shut out and earning a team win. It's a shared result and that's what is important."
UC Riverside played the ball into the attacking half early in the second half to pick up on their offensive mindset, but a handball negated any chance of padding the stat sheet with another shot.
The Highlanders' defensive unit fought off a more pronounced Niagara effort in the second half, as Jacob Sowder and Freymar Omarrson broke up a sure one-on-one situation early in the closing 45 minutes.
Gonzalez came up big again in the 63rd minute, as Niagara played the ball into the 18-yard box and sent a point-blank shot right into the goalkeeper.
Federico Ucar, wearing the captain's armband, broke the deadlock in the 69th minute by slipping a ball into the opposite corner after racing back onside to meet the pass. Possession was the name of the game for UCR in in the following minutes, as the Highlanders did well to steal time off the clock until Niagara forced the ball back to Gonzalez at the other end of the field.
Niagara's defensive pressure turned into offensive persistence - mainly down the left side of the pitch - that was met with a staunch stand from the UCR back line. As the Purple Eagles racked up all six of their corner kick opportunities in the second half, Cupello's defense was ready for the push.
UCR was the recipient of constant corner kicks, however. Adrian Meade-Tatum provided the insurance off the Highlanders' second corner of the game, finding the back of the net off his chest from Issa Badawiya's set piece inswinger. An own goal in the 85th minute sealed the deal for UCR. After a 662-day wait for college soccer, it was the perfect ending for Cupello and his squad.
"We talked about how it felt having the game taken away from us during the pandemic," Cupello said. "It was 662 days since our last NCAA game, and we wanted to be sure we gave everything out of respect to our program and our sport."
The Highlanders will remain in the Empire State to close their season-opening road trip, taking on Canisius on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. PT. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.
