Hickory, N.C. – . The Lenoir-Rhyne Men Soccer team opened their season with a 2-0 win at Coker as Victor Cascon and Jaime Poza scored second half goals, while Juan Basabe had four saves in the shutout. 
 
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: Lenoir-Rhyne 2, Coker 0
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (1-0, 1-0 SAC), Coker (0-1, 0-1 SAC)
Location: Coker Athletic Field | Hartsville, S.C.
 
STATS OF THE MATCH:  

• The teams played the first 45 minutes to a draw but the Bears did outshoot the Cobras 8-2 in the first half.
• Cascon got the Bears on the board with his first goal for the senior in the 54th minute
• Poza then gave the Bears the insurance goal five minutes later. 
• Basabe got the shutout in his first career outing as a Bear. Basabe had four saves on the night including two in the final ten minutes of action. 
• The Bears outshot the Cobras 13-9 but Coker held the advantage 6-2 in corner kicks. 

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• These two teams will play again in Hickory on March 18th as the conference schedule is set up in four teams pods. LR and Coker will be joined by Wingate and Catawba as each team will play each other twice. 
• In a strange schedule quirk between these two SAC schools, four of the last five matchups have taken place in Hickory before tonight. The Bears last trip here was October 3, 2018.
• Cascon's goal was the seniors 22nd goal in his career as he moved into sole possession of 6th in team history. Cascon needs three more goals to move into 5th place. 
• This was the Bears first win to open a season since beating USC-Aiken 3-0 to open the 2017 season. 

UP NEXT: Bears will travel to Wingate next Thursday at 7:30.