NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Victoria Vera's (Plainview, N.Y.) two goals led four different scorers as Southern Connecticut women's soccer defeated the College of Staten Island, 5-0, in its home opener at Jess Dow Field. With the win, Southern Connecticut picks up it's first win of the season to improve to 1-2, while CSI drops to 1-3 on the season. 

Vera, Kat Mancinone (Roxbury, Conn.) and Julia Alicea (Columbia, Conn.) all scored their first career goals in the Owls' win while Kaitlyn D'Amico (Middletown, Conn.) scored the Owls' first goal of the season and the 11^th of her career. In addition, Riley Ayers (Andover, Conn.), Caileigh Driscoll (Plymouth, Mass.), Sabrina Nogula (Mahopac, N.Y.) and Aries Bell (Beacon Falls, Conn.) all tallied assists for their first career points.

In goal, Allie Smith (Danbury, Conn.) had two saves for her 10^th career shutout. The win was also head coach Adam Cohen's 125^th of his career.
  HOW IT HAPPENED

• SCSU 1, CSI 0 | 5:00, 1^st: Riley Ayer placed a beautiful cross pass into the box where a diving Kaitlyn D'Amico headed it past the State Island goalkeeper for the Owls first goal of the season.
• SCSU 2, CSI 0 | 39:44, 1st: Aries Bell maneuvered through traffic before leading Victoria Vera with a pass through two defenders. Vera then collected the ball at the top of the box and flicked a shot past the Dolphins keeper to give the Owls a 2-0 lead.
• SCSU 3, CSI 0 | 49:33, 2^nd: Caileigh Driscoll's pass from the goalline to the front of the net found Vera for the freshman's second goal of the game.
• SCSU 4, CSI 0 | 84:29, 2^nd: Moments after what appeared to be a goal by Julia Alicea, which was waved off after officials ruled it was stopped before the goalline, the junior forward ran around the Dolphins defense before blasting in the first goal of her career.
• SCSU 5, CSI 0 | 87:14, 2^nd: Entering the game in the final minutes of play for her first collegiate minutes, Kat Mancinone took a feed from Alicea from 35 yards out, ran past her defender and beat the keeper for her first career goal.

NOTES

• The last time Southern Connecticut scored five goals in a game was in a 5-1 win at Bentley on Oct. 10, 2010.
• The last time the Owls had four different goal scorers in a game was in a 6-1 win against Felician in Rindge, N.H. on Sept. 3, 2010.
• Vera is also the first SCSU freshman to score two goals in a game since Meghan Kelley on Oct. 28, 2017. 
• With Vera and Mancinone both scoring their first career goals, it was also the first time that two freshmen scored in the same game since Victoria Buonanni and Hannah Bodner did it against Newberry on Nov. 14, 2014.
• The Owls are 3-0-1 in their last four home openers dating back to the 2017 season.