GARDEN CITY, New York - The American International College men's soccer team beat Georgian Court University, 3-1, in the teams' season openers at the Adelphi Tournament on Thursday, August 30.

FAST FACTS:
Final score: AIC 3, Georgian Court 1
Location: Motamed Field (Garden City, New York)
Records: AIC begins the year 1-0; Georgian Court is now 0-1 to start the year.

STATS LEADERS:
AIC:
Jonathan Murray (one goal)
Steven Hernandez (one goal)
Alexandre Frank (one goal)
Jeremy Fricker (one assist)
Jake Durham (one assist)
Ioannis Iatroudis (five saves)

Georgian Court:
Tommaso Rio (one goal)
Yianni Kavarakas (two saves)

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• AIC got on the board first off a goal from junior forward Steven Hernandez in the 35^th minute that deflected off a defender.
• The Yellow Jackets headed into halftime with a 2-0 lead, as senior back Jonathan Murray notched the first goal of his career in the 41^st minute off a corner kick.
• The lead grew to three goals in the 56^th minute, with grad student midfielder Alexandre Frank scoring off a free kick to push the AIC advantage to 3-0.
• Georgian Court broke the shutout in the 57^th minute, but sophomore goaltender Ioannis Iatroudis was able to make five saves in the contest to keep AIC ahead.

BUZZWORTHY:

• Murray's first career goal came in just his second career start and seventh career appearance. It was also his first career shot on goal.
• This is the third straight year that AIC has started the year with a win.
• Several players made their AIC debuts on Thursday: grad students Yanis Boucetta, Adrian Romero and Jeremy Fricker, redshirt junior Luis Torres and freshmen Colin Spaulding and Anthony Boele.

COACH'S CORNER:

• "I was very impressed with the performance overall," said AIC head coach Luke Perry. "The first game is always very difficult to get your feet off the ground and get things runningbut first half, I thought we were excellent, and second half, we defended well and did our job."
• "Jonny's a great guy to have on the team," Perry added about Murray's performance. "He's always hard working, gets his head down, does the right things every day. He performed very well today, I thought his overall game was excellent. And I'm pleased to see him get the opportunity to score. Definitely well-deserved - hard work pays off."

PLAYERS' CORNER:

• "It was really special," Murray said. "Obviously that was only my second career start, and the first game of the season, so to go out and get a goal, that was huge - and to help the team out. We would've really liked to keep the clean sheet today, that would've given the defense a lot of confidence, butto get the goal and play well and only let one goal in, it was really good."
• "It definitely boosts my confidence," Hernandez said. "I'm sure there's many more to come. It was a very good win, it was a very good test for us, we're still looking to get better in some aspects, but we're confident everybody's confident, and I'm confident in every player on the team."

NEXT UP:

• AIC will play against No. 6 LIU Post to close out the Adelphi Tournament on Saturday, September 1.

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.