South Euclid, Oh. – The Mercyhurst men's soccer team passed its first test of the season with a 2-1 non-conference victory over the Notre Dame College Falcons Thursday, September 1. The game was Mercyhurst's first of five straight road games to begin the 2016 campaign.
 
The Lakers got the scoring started thanks to 2015 leading-scorer Thom Derks. Derks netted his first of the season 43 seconds into the game for the early 1-0 advantage.
 
After the early score, play flowed back and forth with good chances for both teams. Derks had another opportunity in the fourth minute that was stalled by Falcon's goalkeeper Daniele De Angelis. Laker's sophomore goalie Alex Brems was up to the task early, stopping Lewis Norvock's header attempt in the ninth minute.
 
Notre Dame broke through and tied the game at one in the 41^st minute. After Mark Roche was given a yellow card in the box, the Falcons were awarded a penalty kick. Leonardo Paiva cashed in to knot the game at one before the break.
 
Scoring chances were close to even for the entire game with Mercyhurst holding the slight edge in shots 17-15 and a slightly large edges in shots on goal 11-7. The one shot on goal that made the difference for Mercyhurst came courtesy of freshmen forward Jorge Gonzalez.
 
After entering the game as a subsititute in the 41^st minute just after the Falcon's tied the game, Gonzalez was able to make the first shot-on-goal in his collegiate career count. Roche sent a corner kick into the box and Gonzalez finished a header to give Mercyhurst the go-ahead goal in the 64^th minute.
 
After the goal, Notre Dame had six shot opportunities and a couple of corner kicks that came close to tying the game, but Brems and the Mercyhurst defense stood their ground to maintain the lead until the clock expired.
 
The Lakers (1-0, 0-0) will play the second game of its five-game road trip to begin the season in Charleston, W.V against the University of Charleston Sunday, September 4 at 2 p.m.