HAMDEN, Conn – Coming off of a 2-0 win at Vermont, the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team earned their second win of the year Saturday against the Hartford Hawks in its home opener.

A theme for the Bobcats this year has been scoring early and today was no different.

On a beautiful, mid-70s afternoon, senior forward David Bercedo scored a goal in the fifth minute from a looping cross by junior defender Jared Smith. Senior forward Brage Aasen was also involved in the play.

In the first half, Smith was a true playmaker, holding his own on the defensive end while creating passes and capitalizing on runs from the Quinnipiac forwards.

Five minutes later, the Quinnipiac attack was full of ferocity and finesse. A pass from senior forward Tomas Svecula found Aasen at the top of the 18-yard box. Aasen flicked his foot back, rolling the ball toward a charging Bercedo who buried the ball past Hartford junior goaltender Rotem Fadida, 2-0 Bobcats. 

The chemistry between Aasen, Bercedo and Svecula was evident throughout the day. 

“Every day we are practicing together, so the thing is when we are playing, we know each other. We know our movements,” Bercedo said. 

In the 61st minute, a barrage of shots from those three applied pressure on the Hartford defense. That pressure led to a penalty kick for Svecula. However, the Hartford junior goaltender Rotem Fadida made a point to get into Svecula’s head.  

“He was literally pointing, like shoot there, shoot there (to the bottom right), and I shot there, and I was like you told me to shoot there,” Svecula said, as he pushed the lead to three. 

Freshman midfielder Alex Miller came onto the pitch as a substitution and instantly made an impact. He was cruising up the right wing and boomed a shot off his left foot that just missed the Hawks net by inches. 

A total of 25 players played for Quinnipiac today, a season-high. Depth is something that is and will always be incredibly valuable to the team and head coach Eric Da Costa. 

“From a coach’s perspective, it’s massive to know that you have a security blanket,” Da Costa said. “If you can lose a player or you need to make a change, then you have some people of quality that can do the job.”

The Bobcats next game will be at Northeastern on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The win is important for Quinnipiac, but Da Costa still sees room for lots of improvement. 

“There’s a lot we want to get better at, and we’re hoping that in the next couple of weeks here we can continue to move forward and get better,” Da Costa said.

The Bobcats next home match will be on Sept. 10 vs. Central Connecticut at 2 p.m.