Terriers Take Down No. 14 La Salle on Wednesday Night

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The St. Francis Brooklyn men's soccer team (2-3-0) shutout La Salle (2-1-0), 2-0, on Wednesday evening. The Terriers took down a La Salle team that came into the contest ranked No. 14 in the nation in the latest TopDrawerSoccer Men's DI Top 25 poll and received votes in the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division I National Poll. HOW IT HAPPENED: The Terriers set the tone early in the contest against nationally ranked La Salle when junior captain Marco Torriani scored the game's first goal in the 10th minute. Torriani scored his second goal in as many games on a penalty kick. The score was the second of his career (tallied his first career goal on a penalty kick on September 4, against Cornell). Junior forward Matteo Caribotti found the back of the net for the first time this season in the 35th minute when he sent a header past La Salle's Cameron Keys. Sophomore defenders Domenico Pugliese and Ridwan Hannan setup Caribotti on the tally. St. Francis Brooklyn recorded its 24th regular season shutout victory since 2015. Freshman goalkeeper Andrea Lubbia recorded his first career win and shutout tonight against No. 14 La Salle. Lubbia earned his first career start in goal for the Terriers and registered three saves in his collegiate debut. The Explorers outshot the Terriers (11-5), but each team recorded three shots on goal. La Salle took 14 corners to the Terriers' four. St. Francis Brooklyn put forth a strong defensive effort en route to its second win of the season. NOTES FROM THE COACH: "I'm very excited for the boys. They played hard, played together, fought for 90 minutes, and it was a well-deserved win," said head coach Tom Giovatto when discussing tonight's 2-0 victory over No. 14 La Salle. "It's great, he's our captain (Marco Torriani), and he's our leader. He takes more time in practice scoring goals, so he is extremely confident in taking them (penalty kicks); we are as a staff extremely confident in him. So far he's 2-for-2 on penalty kicks which is great," noted Giovatto on Torriani's second career goal. "It felt like we had a little breathing room (on Caribotti's goal that gave the Terriers a 2-0 lead). He came in and did an incredible job off the bench for us, as well as the other subs that came into the game it lifted the game. We wanted to make sure that the subs came in and had an impact and the level of the game stayed the same and got better, and with every sub it did. It's a huge win, huge team win, and we're just really excited for the guys, and I hope we can continue to play as well as we did tonight," said Giovatto on Caribotti's first goal of the season. "The win gives everybody a lot of confidence. Andrea has been working hard, he deserved a shot tonight, and he made the best of it, we're happy for him," Giovatto added. UP NEXT: The Terriers are back in action on Saturday, September 8, at 3 p.m. when they head to New Rochelle, NY to take on coach Giovatto's alma mater Iona.