MIAMI (August 24, 2012) – The FIU men’s soccer team (1-0) defeated the Bryant Bulldogs (0-1) by a score of 2-0 to give first-year Head Coach Kenny Arena his first-career victory Friday night at FIU Soccer Stadium.

Sophomore forward Quentin Albrecht scored two goals for the second time in his FIU career, while seniors Lucas Di Croce and Chris Lamarre and junior Nicolas Rodriguez each added an assist. Freshman keeper Robin Spiegel was perfect between the pipes with three saves in his first-career shutout and victory at FIU.

“We created a lot of chances,” Arena said. “I wish we scored more goals. I was really happy with our energy going forward. I thought we were dangerous. I’m very happy with our defending. I know we gave up five shots, but I don’t know if we gave up very good chances on those five shots.

The Panthers started off strong when Albrecht scored the first goal of the season in the 13^th minute off a corner kick from Rodriguez. Rodriguez dished a beautiful ball to Albrecht, who sent the header to the opposite corner of the goal for the score.

“I always want to score,” Albrecht said. “Obviously, we should have scored more goals today but we’re happy with the results. This is hopefully just the beginning and we really want to do better next game.”

After going into the half with a 1-0 lead, Albrecht notched his second goal of the match in the 59^th minute as he put away a nice header from Lamarre off a set piece from Di Croce.

“It was a very sound day and a great start to the year,” Arena added. “I told the guys we are 1/18 done with the season, so that’s why I’m not super excited. I am happy we won and that we kicked off the season on a good note.”   

The Panthers have a week off before facing North Florida (Aug. 31) and Jacksonville (Sept. 2) on the road.

For ticket information to FIU home matches, call the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME or log onto www.FIUSports.com. Fans can follow @FIUMensSoccer on Twitter and find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/FIUMensSoccer. Fans can also watch all FIU men’s soccer home matches live on FIUSports.com on our free webcasts.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.

About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission and enrolls nearly 48,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. More than 140,000 alumni live and work in South Florida. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.

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