As the day was filled with emotions for the university’s Family Day on Sept. 25, the day was capped off by the soccer team. After a 15-minute delayed start because of Saint Anselm University’s late arrival, the Chargers took to the field in front of a filled-up Kathy Zolad stadium. The Chargers won the game 2-0 with the goals coming from Pau Santanach and Imanol Ruiz.

The Hawks, who sat third in the conference, came out fast, putting pressure on the Chargers and goal keeper, Themis Kastoris. The initial surge was met by the blue and gold and was soon matched and team captain Francisco Guedes began to control the pace of play for the Chargers through the middle and attacking thirds.

The first goal came in the 26th minute when winger Alexander Gunnarsson took to the byline and laid a pass back to Santanach who found himself time and space and put his shot to the far post out of the reach of Brian Underhill.

The rest of the first half went back and forth with things getting chippy. But again, Guedes stepped in when he was needed most and controlled the tempo.

Out of the half, it was the Chargers that put the Hawks on their back foot, with a surge of attacks as the Hawks had to call upon their back line and Underhill to keep it a one goal match.

Coming off the bench in the second half, Gunnarsson proved to be vital down the stretch as, in the 81st minute, he attacked the byline again and slotted a ball across the face to find the charging Imanol Ruiz who tapped the pass in out of the reach of Underhill to give the Chargers a commanding 2-0 lead with only nine minutes left in the match.

The Chargers held on and won, as they knocked off the Hawks and picked up their first conference win of the year.

The Chargers return to action on Tuesday when they travel to New York to face off against the College of Saint Rose with kickoff coming at 4 p.m.