GARDEN CITY, New York The American International College men's soccer team opened the 2017 season with a 2-0 victory on Thursday, August 31, against Dominican College in the first game of the Adelphi Tournament.

FAST FACTS:
FINAL SCORE: AIC 2, Dominican 0
RECORDS: AIC begins the year 1-0-0, while Dominican starts off the year at 0-1-0.
LOCATION: Motamed Field, Garden City, New York

STAT LEADERS:

AIC:
Jovanni Garcia (one goal)
Jake Durham (one goal)
Nicholas Romei (four saves, zero goals allowed)

DOMINICAN:
Joshua Stephens (three saves, two goals allowed)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• The teams were scoreless for nearly 40 minutes until sophomore midfielder and captain Jake Durham secured a goal off a free possession at 39:25 to give the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 lead headed into the locker room at halftime.
• Coming in as a sub with 12 minutes left, sophomore Jovanni Garcia made an instant impact, sealing the victory for the Yellow Jackets with 1:13 left to make the score 2-0.

GAME NOTES:

• For the second straight year, AIC started off the season with a victory. In 2016, the Yellow Jackets took a 3-2 overtime win over Barton College to begin the year.
• This is AIC's first season-opening shutout since September 4, 2014, when the team also posted a 2-0 victory against Felician College. The Yellow Jackets recorded four shutouts in all of 2016.
• The clean sheet was the second shutout of junior goalkeeper Nicholas Romei's career.

COACH'S CORNER:

• "It wasn't a perfect game by far that we played, but we really worked hard for each other," said AIC head coach Luke Perry. "I'm very pleased with the players that came in and the character they showed."

PLAYER'S CORNER:

• "To come out today, it was a tough game, but it was a team effort to get a shutout," Romei said. "It's not just me we've put in a lot of very hard work over the last few weeks, and it's a good sign, and a good confidence builder."

NEXT UP:

• The Yellow Jackets will face off against LIU Post on Saturday, September 2 in the second game of the Adelphi Tournament. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.

STAY CONNECTED:

• For more updates about the AIC men's soccer team, follow @AICMSOCCER on Twitter and Instagram and like AIC Men's Soccer on Facebook. For updates on all AIC Yellow Jackets teams, follow @AICAthletics on Twitter and Instagram, and like AIC Yellow Jackets on Facebook.