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SAN FRANCISCO - The USF men's soccer team scored early and often in a 5-1 victory over La Salle on Sunday afternoon from Negoesco Stadium. The Dons (2-2-0) rode a wave of three first-half goals to cap off a pair of wins in their first weekend of home matches after defeating Canisius 2-0 on Friday.
"I think every time we come out we're learning something," said second-year head coach Eddie Soto. "I think today there are things we did well, and things we can take away to improve on. To say that that's the bar we're trying to set, no way. There were a lot of good moments, but a lot of learning moments that we'll take from this and make us stronger and better for next weekend."
Returning to the lineup after missing Friday's match due to a red card, Davi Ramos sparked the offense with a pair of goals within the first 16 minutes of action on Sunday. His first strike came in the 12th minute after La Salle's Bobby Briggs was issued a yellow card that set Ramos up with a long free kick from the left wing near the touchline. Ramos's long arching shot bounced down to the goal box and seemed to tightrope the goal line before hitting the post and finally bouncing in to put USF up 1-0.
Ramos followed that up three minutes later when a La Salle defender was whistled for a hand ball right on the boundary of the penalty box, allowing Ramos a free kick from the 18-yard line. Ramos took advantage and threaded a low shot around the La Salle defensive wall and into the far corner for his second score, giving the Dons a 2-0 advantage.
It didn't stay that way for long, however, as Aaron Lombardi tallied his first goal of the season in the 20th minute as he lofted a soft looping shot over the La Salle defense from the top of the penalty box that bounced untouched into the empty net.
La Salle (1-3-0) almost got on the board soon after that when Briggs took a pass that was headed backwards toward him in the box and Briggs fired off a right-footed rocket that was stabbed by USF keeper Andre Glasnovic as he made the full-extension diving save to keep the score at 3-0.
However, La Salle did manage to tally their lone goal of the contest soon after in the 38th minute after Glasnovic received a yellow card following a collision in the penalty area, setting up a penalty kick that Tony Daniele converted for La Salle to shrink the USF lead to 3-1 heading into halftime.
Things were physical from the beginning, with a total of seven cards issued overall - including two red cards - but the intensity seemed to turn up a notch coming out of the half. La Salle put more pressure on the USF defense in the second frame, but it was the Dons who added two insurance goals to put the match away.
Freshman Santiago Digiuseppe registered his first-career goal in the 69th minute after Kevin Gould delivered a beautiful pass from around midfield that led Digiuseppe up the left wing and allowed him to beat his defender enough to get an angle to push it into the far corner past La Salle keeper Cameron Keys, who came out to defend.
The final USF score came in the 73rd minute when a number of Dons had good looks from point blank inside the six-yard box blocked amidst a flurry of shots, but it was Lombardi who punched in a rebound to put the Dons up by their final tally of 5-1.
USF had a season-high as they held an 18-10 edge in shots for the match, while La Salle had more of the corner kick opportunities with a 7-2 advantage in that category.
The last time the Dons scored at least five goals in a match was Oct. 3, 2003 when they defeated Sacramento State 6-0.
Glasnovic (2-0-0) registered four saves as he picked up his second consecutive win in goal, while David Tuchinsky (0-1-0) took the loss, recording one save.
The Dons return to action when they hit the road for a 7 p.m. contest at UC Riverside on Thursday, Sept. 10.
