SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- SEU Men's Soccer opened the 2025 season in dominant fashion, cruising to a 5-0 victory over Spartanburg Methodist on Saturday afternoon at Nash Soccer Field.
The Fire struck early and often, building a 3-0 lead before halftime. After his penalty attempt was saved in the 20th minute, senior midfielder
Miguel Londono stayed alert and buried the rebound to open the scoring. Just over 13 minutes later,
Carson Cajuste doubled the lead on a breakaway finish set up by
Guilherme Viserta. In the 39th minute,
Jman Dieng made it 3-0 after stealing the ball from an SMC defender and slotting it home.
Southeastern wasted little time adding to its advantage in the second half.
Fabio De Paula tallied in the 50th minute on another breakaway, again assisted by Viserta. Seven minutes later,
Adam Cooil capped the scoring with a header off a Viserta free kick, marking the third assist of the day for the sophomore forward.
The performance etched its way into the program's record book. Viserta became the first SEU player to register three assists in a match since
Victor Cavalcante against Ave Maria on October 7, 2023. It also marked just the fifth time since 2014 that a Southeastern player had three assists in a game, a list that includes current Fire head coach
Gerritson Craane. Three assists in a match stands as the program's known record in that span.
As a team, the five-goal effort was SEU's most in a season opener since scoring seven against Trinity Baptist in 2015. It also marked the third time in the past four seasons the Fire netted five goals to start the year. Defensively, the 5-0 victory was the program's first season-opening shutout since 2020 at Culver-Stockton.
The win improved Southeastern's mark in openers to 7-0-1 since 2018 and 10-1-1 since 2014, continuing an impressive trend of strong season starts. The Fire controlled play throughout, finishing with a 12-7 edge in shots and limiting the Pioneers to just one shot on goal. Goalkeepers
Noah Murray-Hawkins and Emanuel Uwazie combined for the clean sheet, with Uwazie making the lone save.
SEU continues its two-game road trip to begin the season on Monday when they face Montreat at 3 p.m.
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