WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- No. 5 UMass Lowell scored once in each half, including a first-half penalty kick by Matt Dubois, to earn a 2-0 non-conference win over the University of New Haven at Robert B. Dodds Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. UMass Lowell, ranked fifth in the NSCAA/adidas national coaches' poll, improved to 3-0-1 with the victory, their second in a row. Dubois' penalty kick took some life out of UNH (0-3-0) early in the contest, coming at the 6:53 mark in the first half following a foul in the box. Dubois punched his third goal of the season to the center of the net and UNH goalkeeper James Hilaire guessed wrong, diving right.
To their credit, UNH was able to stay in the match by keeping UMass Lowell off the board for the next 66-plus minutes stretching into the second half.
But in the 73rd minute, the River Hawks put the game out of reach when Edens Chery scored his first goal of the season. UML had a three-shot flurry in front of the net, and after Hilaire dove to his right to knock away the second shot, the rebound found its way onto Chery's foot and he booted into an open net.
"I think today was definitely a positive step forward for us," said UNH head coach Joshua Krusewski. "We definitely have some offensive deficiencies that need to be cleaned up, no question about it. But for us to be in a game with the fifth-ranked team in the country, plus one of their goals came a penalty kick ... Ultimately we had a very good second half and it showed that we can play. We could have come out here and packed it in and lost big but we hung in there with them."
Hilaire handled a number of chances in the box and made six saves for the Chargers, who were out-shot 18-6 in the contest. Ryan Richards made one save for UML to preserve the shutout, his third in a row.
The Chargers continue play at home this weekend, when they host Bloomfield College in a doubleheader with the women's soccer team on Saturday, September 8. The women's team opens the action by hosting nationally-ranked College of Saint Rose at 2:00 p.m., with the men's contest to follow at 4:30.
