Daniel Davren's goal with just under seven minutes remaining propelled the St. Thomas Aquinas College men's soccer team to a 2-1 victory at Dowling College in their East Coast Conference season debut. The Spartans improve to 2-1-1 overall on the season and 1-0 in the ECC while Dowling slips to 1-4-1, 0-1.

If the Spartans were showing any rust from not having played since their September 5 setback at Assumption, they didn't show it early on. STAC recorded the first four shots of the afternoon and broke the seal on the scoreboard when Brendan Flynn's header off a corner kick put the visitors ahead 1-0 at the 4:19 mark.

Dowling would carry the play in the latter stages of the first stanza but the Spartans backline held firm in taking the lead into the locker room. After the break it was STAC recapturing the early momentum, but the Golden Lions were able to draw even at the 70:43 mark when Anthony Loenick's long free kick was headed into the net by Jon Burch.

With newfound life, Dowling pressed for its first lead of the afternoon but were unable to break through, setting the stage for STAC's game-winner. After a defensive breakdown, Davren found himself alone on goal, where he calmly dribbled around Golden Lion goalkeeper Chris Friedl and tucked it home with just 6:28 left on the clock.

Despite some anxious moments in the waning moments, the Spartans were able to preserve their big road victory, with netminder Andrew Tartara recording four saves for the victors. The physical play picked up in the second half as each team was shown four yellow cards, and Dowling committed the majority of the fouls by an 18-13 margin.

St. Thomas Aquinas will play its fifth straight road game to start the season in another ECC showdown at Queens College on Wednesday, September 19 at 4:00 pm. They will finally see the home turf at Eugene Levy field in Pomona on Saturday, September 22, when they play conference foe Molloy College at 2:30 pm as the back end of a double-header with the Lady Spartans starting at 12:30.