Box Score
Wilkes-Barre, PA – King's College scored a pair of early first half goals and held Marywood University off the scoreboard the rest of the way to pick up a 2-0 victory in the non-conference men's soccer season opener for both teams on Saturday. The Monarchs, now 1-0 on the season, will host Dickinson College tomorrow while the Pacers (0-1) will visit the University of Scranton on Sunday after the Royals and Red Devils played to a 1-1 draw this afternoon.
King's opened the scoring early, getting a goal in the fifth minute of play, as Greg DeMaio slipped a thru-ball to Joey Bender who scored from close range. The Monarchs added to their lead in the 13th minute off a corner kick as Max Allegro headed home a tally of a Brian Alifano assist.
Bert Meekins had the best opportunity of the first half for Marywood, but his long range blast was corralled by Monarch goalkeeper Mark Labbadia, and the Pacers were faced with a two-goal halftime deficit.
Marywood pressured the King's backline for much of the second half, but were unable to find the back of the net. Brett Megee nearly brought the Pacers back to within a goal with less than ten minutes to play after some nifty passing set the senior free on the right side of the field, but Labbadia made a diving stop on Megee's shot from the top of the box and was able to control the rebound before any Marywood attackers could pounce on the rebound.
Labbadia made four saves to earn the shutout in goal for King's while Marywood goalkeeper Jared El Gayeh made two stops for the Pacers.
Marywood returns to action tomorrow at University of Scranton (0-0-2) in the first-ever meeting between the cross-town rivals. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the Royals' Fitzpatrick Field.
