The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's soccer team captured a 3-2 victory over St. Michael's College in their 2018 home opener at Spartan Field. With the victory, the Spartans now stand at 1-1 on the season while St. Michael's dropped to 0-2.

Though STAC held the early shots advantage, the contest remained scoreless midway through the first half until a Luis Morales penalty kick at 27:07 broke the seal. The Spartans, who benefitted from an own goal in their opening game loss at Southern New Hampshire, were the ones victimized this time as Christian Jones put one into his own net to tie the score at 1-1 at the 36:08 mark,

Jones would more than make amends, putting his squad back on top just over three minutes later. Morales attemped to convert his second penalty kick of the day but was turned aside by Purple Knights' goalkeeper Gabriel Pineda, but Jones was on the spot to convert the rebound to give the hosts a 2-1 lead they would hold into halftime.

Just under eight minutes after the break, St. Michael's drew even again, as Jacob von Giebel came up with a steal and converted at 52:57. Once again, Jones was on the spot, giving the hosts the lead for good with an artful move and hitting the net for his second of the day at 60:40. From there, Spartans netminder Jack Nicholson held the lead in his first game of the season, as STAC held a 19-8 advantage in shots on the day.

The Spartans are back in action on Tuesday, September 4, hosting Holy Family University in a 2:00 pm start. They then travel for contests at the University of New Haven and Millersville University before kicking off their East Coast Conference slate, hosting Mercy College on Saturday, September 15, at 1:00 pm.