Quinnipiac Men’s Soccer Shuts Out Hartford in Home-Opener

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Zack Hochberg, Beat Reporter: Men's Soccer
September 4, 2022

The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team picked up their second win of the season as they shut out the Hartford Hawks by a final score of 3-0 in their home opener. 

The Bobcats had it going early as Jared Smith found senior forward David Bercedo inside the box, allowing Bercedo to tap in the first Quinnipiac goal of the game just six minutes in. Quinnipiac continued to push the ball on the offensive end, as senior forward Brage Aasen found Bercedo with a beautiful touch pass to give the Bobcats a 2-0 lead and Bercedo his second goal in 11 minutes.

“I’m really happy right now… we won and I scored two goals,” said Bercedo. 

 


“We started really well, we always want to start off on a positive note and we got two goals in the first 15 minutes,” said Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa. 

Hartford settled in, picking up the physicality during the final 30 minutes of the first frame. Both teams were handed yellow cards. However, Quinnipiac didn’t shy away from the physicality, Da Costa described his team as “blue collar and hard-working” following the match. 

Despite the early lead, the Bobcats remained aggressive, producing ten of the twelve shots in the first half. Quinnipiac continued to dominate ball possession in the second half, outshooting the Haws 14-4. 

Quinnipiac’s ball dominance and persistent offensive effort created a flurry of offensive chances inside the box, one of which resulted in senior forward Tomas Svecula getting fouled inside the box for a penalty kick. Svecula buried the penalty kick into the bottom right corner, extending the Quinnipiac lead to three in the 64th minute. 

With a 3-0 lead, the Bobcats were able to cruise to their first home victory of the season. Quinnipiac was able to explore just how much depth the team may have this season, over 20 different players made an appearance in the match. 

“It’s really important from a coaching perspective to know that you have a security blanket if you lose a player or you need to make a change then you have someone of equal quality that can do the job,” said Da Costa.

While Quinnipiac may have gotten the win, Da Costa wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance.

“At the end of the day we got the result we wanted… but I felt like we took our gas off a little bit and we’re still going to hold them accountable for that,” said Da Costa. “Probably a bit more negatives than positives today, so I’ll let the guys know about that.” 

Quinnipiac improved to 2-1 on the year with today’s victory and will continue their non-conference schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 6 in Massachusetts against Northeastern.