FARMINGTON, Maine - The Husson University men's soccer team opened up North Atlantic Conference action with a 2-0 victory over the University of Maine at Farmington Beavers at Leib Field on Saturday afternoon. 

It was a scoreless first half as the Eagles (2-1-0, 1-0-0 NAC) were unable to land a shot on goal while the Beavers (0-2-0, 0-1-0 NAC) forced sophomore Alex Rechsteiner to make two saves. 

In the second half, the Eagles found their attack going and was rewarded in the 58th minute. 36 seconds after coming onto the pitch, making his long awaited return from injury, sophomore Mario Alvarez had an instant impact. With his first touch of the game he chased down a loose ball on the edge of the penalty area and fired an exquisite volley over the keepers head and into the top left corner of the goal.

The Beavers seached for the tying goal but the Eagles killed the game with just under four minutes to play. More Eagles substitutes making impacts as Domingo Infante recovered a loose ball and released a ball over the top of the Beavers back line finding the breaking run of freshman Patricio Reygadas, who was one vs one with the goalkeeper. He kept his composure, opened his body and slotted the ball past the onrushing keeper into the bottom right corner. 

Rechsteiner made two more saves in the second half en route to his third collegiate clean sheet. 

"Today was a really tough game," said head coach Gavin Penny. "We knew coming in that the surface would be tough for us given that we don't play too often on grass surfaces. We weren't able to play our game very well which played into UMF's hands. In addition to that, it was blistering hot, which sapped all the players energy levels. I told the lads at half time that we have to stay composed, stay focused, and work through it. Control what we can control and contain our frustrations with the officials. This is never an easy thing to do but I applaud the lads for battling and for their professionalism. It was a great moment for Mario, given his long year of recovery, and what a finish by the way. I'm also very happy for Pato who has had to be patient with his introduction to college soccer. I think we showed how much quality we have in the squad today. Being able to roll in players of that caliber with 30 minutes remaining is a testament to this squad. It's a very important victory for us and we are looking forward to our next challenge."

The men's soccer team will continue their non-conference schedule on Wednesday when they travel to Bates College in Lewiston with kickoff set for 5:00 p.m.