RINDGE, N.H. (September 2, 2021) – The No. 5 nationally-ranked Franklin Pierce University men's soccer program defeated Nyack College, 4-0, in the season opener on Thursday night at Sodexo Field.

Freshman Braudilio Rodrigues (Lisbon, Portugal) powered the Ravens with two goals in his collegiate debut, while senior Marco Valero tallied two assists of his own. The Crimson and Grey outshot the Warriors 17-2, including eight on goal to Nyack's one that came in the first half. Junior goalkeeper Kosta Maniatis (Montreal, Quebec) started in the cage for FPU and made one save for the win.

The Ravens had a couple of chances early on in the first half, as freshman midfielder Vicente Valor Martinez (San Juan, Spain) sent the ball to the top, but Marco Rößle made the save. Rodrigues corralled the ball in the 35th minute before taking a shot into the bottom right of the net that Rößle saved.

At the 35:05 mark, graduate forward Pedro Juan Vicente (Elche, Spain) opened the scoring for FPU off a corner kick from Valero, heading the ball into the top right corner of the net.

Early into the second half, Rodrigues collected his first collegiate goal, with an assist from Vicente. Aaron Acevedo Artes (Valencia, Spain) passed the ball across to Vicente for a quick shot that was saved by Rößle. With the ball kept in front, Rodrigues came in and took the shot, finding the back of the net to make it 2-0.

With few more opportunities, Rodrigues tallied his second goal of the night at 68:22 to make it a 3-0 contest. After dribbling the ball past a Nyack defender, Rodrigues was able to get in close to fake out the goalie and sailed it to the top left corner of the cage.

Graduate student Javier Nemesio García (Alacuas, Spain) capped off the scoring for the Crimson and Grey after heading a corner kick from Valero to the right side of the goal.

Franklin Pierce will be back in action on Saturday, September 4, at Sodexo Field to take on Queens (N.Y.) at 5 p.m.