Northeastern 1, Holy Cross 0
Aug. 29, 2003
Parsons Field (Brookline, MA)

Team	1st	2nd	Final
Holy Cross (0-1-0)	0	0	0
Northeastern (1-0-0)	1	0	1

The Northeastern men's soccer team opened its 2003 season with a 1-0 win over a tough Holy Cross team at Parsons Field on Friday afternoon, as junior forward Michael Cipriano's late first-half goal was enough to lead the Huskies.

During the 38th minute, sophomore Jay Betley, who entered the game just seconds earlier, sent a perfect feed down field to Cipriano. Holy Cross goalkeeper Kevin Baker hustled to the top of the box to try to cut off the breakaway, but Cipriano was able to flip it past him and get a wide open shot on net for what would prove to be the game-winning goal.

The Huskies started out slow in the first half with Holy Cross doing much of the ball controlling. The Crusaders couldn't put together many scoring chances though, getting just one shot on goal in the first. Northeastern settled down later in the half and took six shots, putting three of them on goal and forcing Baker to make two saves.

NU came out strong again in the second half, getting a number of good scoring chances and forcing the Crusader goalkeeper to make four saves on seven total shots.

Northeastern outshot Holy Cross 13-5 in the match. Baker ended with six saves on the day, while Huskies goalkeeper Sergio Saccoccio was forced to make just two saves, including a big second-half stop, in his first shutout of the season. The Huskies improve to 1-0-0 on the season while the Crusaders drop to 0-1-0.

Northeastern's next action comes on Saturday, Sept. 6, when they travel to Rhode Island for a game at 4 p.m.

Scoring
First Half:
NU - Michael Cipriano (Jay Betley), 38:32

Second Half:
No scoring

Shots
Holy Cross, 5
Northeastern, 13

Corner Kicks
Holy Cross, 5
Northeastern, 6

Offsides
Holy Cross, 2
Northeastern, 2

Fouls
Holy Cross, 20
Northeastern, 13

Saves
Holy Cross, Kevin Baker 6
Northeastern, Sergio Saccoccio 2