NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The senior class was celebrated prior to the matchup against Regent University on Saturday night and the fourth-year players came to play, factoring into four of the five goals as Christopher Newport men's soccer captured a dominant 5-0 win against the Royals. Senior
Riley Usher's career-high five-point performance highlighted the team effort that saw five different Captains score and all 12 seniors play a role in a clean sheet against the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference foe.
In an emotional start to the game, senior
Miles Maggioncalda earned the start after suffering a career-ending injury during preseason heading into his final season as a Captain. The midfielder from Hagerstown, Md. took the opening kick for the Captains and was then substituted off after 14 seconds to a warm ovation from the nearly 350 spectators in attendance at Captains Field. Maggioncalda's career as a Captain concludes with 44 games played as an impact player in the midfield.
Seniors
Michael Hackworth,
Manzi Siibo, and
Matt Yates also subbed off after earning the start for the Captains while the remaining eight seniors averaged just under 36 minutes played in the victory. CNU improved to 8-2-1 overall this season and secured the team's fourth shutout.
Drew McWhinney secured his seventh career game-winning goal when he finished on a pass from the left side by
Josh Monzon in the 12th minute of action. Monzon broke free of his defender near the goal line and centered a pass through the box for the Captains where McWhinney managed to slide through the bouncing ball for the score.
Regent kept CNU in check for the majority of the first half but the Captains doubled the lead just before halftime. With less than 45 seconds left in the half,
Ryan Buckon took a corner kick for the Captains and sent a short ball to the corner of the six where
Declan Karney made an acrobatic heel flick toward the goal mouth. On the receiving end was rookie
Brayden Moyssiadis as the freshman leaned down to head home the hip-high pass.
The Captains carried the momentum from the late goal into the second half and quick scored back-to-back goals at the start of the period.
Riley Usher scored both goals in the span of 93 seconds, marking the fastest consecutive goals scored by the same player since fellow senior
Alex Stell put away a pair in just 52 seconds at Colorado College on September 23, 2023. Speaking of Stell, the senior rounded out the CNU scoring on Saturday with a blazing liner in the 63rd minute.
But first it was Usher, capitalizing on an open goal after Buckon used another heel flick to get the ball back into the middle of the box just 2:22 seconds in the second half. It was Buckon's second helper of the night and the fifth goal of the season for Usher. Then, just over a minute and a half later,
Caleb Lewis found Usher for a similar shot close to the goal mouth on a feed in from the right side. Monzon took a shot on goal off a free kick from just outside the box and the save found Lewis on the back post for the look back inside.
Usher wrapped up his career-best five-point performance when he added an assist on Stell's score in the second half. The senior picked up the assist with a highlight-reel move that put his defender on skates to open himself up for a right-footed laser destined for a hat trick, but the Regent goalkeeper made a highlight of his own with a sprawling, diving save. The ricochet bounced right to the top of the box where Stell was there to clean up, perfectly placing a line drive shot into the top shelf for the score.
With the lead in hand, the Captains were able to bring the senior class back onto the field for a proper send-off in one of their final home regular season games. McWhinney took his first career corner kick in the 72nd minute while
Colin Skwirut raced around at the top of the CNU offense for a ten-minute stretch in the second half.
Joe Summerfield and
Evan Rupe each had moments in the game that nearly turned into scoring chances for the Captains while defender
Yazan Yaghmmour played 54 minutes to lead the senior group on the back line.
Sophomore
Caleb Johnson earned his first career win in goal for the Captains after playing the bulk of the first half. Regent challenged the CNU defense several times in the first half and Johnson made three tremendous saves to keep the Royals off the board. First, a fully extended diving save against Jones Ferguson shot in the 12th minute denied the Regent attack. Then, in the 16th minute, he had to punch away a hard shot from the left side off of his back foot. The best stop, however, came in the 26th minute when a reaction save from Johnson was made with an exclamation point as Landen Staples unleashed a bullet from short range but the CNU keeper was ready.
Henry Houser came on in the second half and also pitched a shutout as the three CNU keepers combined for the fourth clean sheet of the season.
CNU outshot Regent by a final count of 20-9 including a 13-3 advantage in shots on-goal.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Wednesday, October 14 at RavenTek Park in Leesburg, Va. against Dickinson College. Kickoff against the Red Devils is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
