NEW YORK — Behind Dylan Costa's brace, the Pratt Institute men's soccer team picked up a 2-0 victory over Gwynedd Mercy University in their inaugural Atlantic East Conference match on Wednesday evening at Randall's Island.
Costa broke the deadlock in the evenly-matched affair in the 38th minute as he took a long ball from George Batska, reversed, and bent a left-footed shot from the edge of the box over a defender and into the upper corner to give the Cannoneers a 1-0 lead.
The Pratt (2-6-3, 1-0-0) defense did well to limit the opportunities in the second half to preserve the one-goal lead and held the Griffins (2-12-1, 0-2-0) to just one shot in the last 10 minutes and weathered four late corners.
After a foul in the game's waning seconds all but sealed the win for Pratt, Paxton Lyman sent the ensuing free kick from beyond midfield into the box and was one-touch volleyed by Costa over the keeper's head and into the back of the net just before the final buzzer sounded.
The Cannoneers finished with a 15-11 shot advantage for the contest while Gwynedd held a 9-4 edge in corners. Carter Tillman made five saves in goal in recording his first collegiate clean sheet. Costa finished with five shots and Bryan Hong-Dominguez fired four shots.
Pratt heads to Arlington, Virginia to face Marymount University (7-4-4, 2-0) on Saturday, October 12 for an Atlantic East match starting at 1 p.m.
