Richard Bland Runs Past Visiting USC Salkehatchie 4-1

SOUTH PRINCE GEORGE, Va. -- Freshman Davi Girardi/São Paulo, Brazil scored two goals, while sophomore Alex Vazquez/Chester and freshmen Uziel Hernandez/The Villages, Florida each added one goal, to lead Richard Bland College to a 4-1 Region X Conference men's soccer victory past USC Salkehatchie on Sunday afternoon at Statesman Soccer Field.  Sophomore Jamie McAvoy/Ayr, Scotland had two assists, and freshmen Nikola Aleksic/Belgrade, Serbia and Kaleb Kelly/Leesburg, Florida each contributed one assist for the host Statesmen (3-0, 3-0 Region X) against the visiting Indians (1-2, 1-1 Region X).  Richard Bland will remain home at Statesman Soccer Field with a non-region match against USC Sumter on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 4 p.m.

"Our team played very good soccer today," said fourth-year head coach Eduardo de Souza.  "We dominated the match and had many opportunities for an even greater margin.  Our group is strong and will continue taking it one game at a time."

Richard Bland yielded the first goal of the match to USC Salkehatchie at 6:14, before responding with three-straight goals to lead 3-1 at the intermission.  Hernandez tallied his first goal of the season at 13:26, as McAvoy sent a deep serve that Hernandez was able to head into the net.  Girardi followed with the first of his two back-to-back goals just seconds later at 14:08, heading in a sideline throw-in from Aleksic.  Girardi tallied again at 23:59, this time courtesy of a free kick from McAvoy for the two-goal advantage at the break.  The Statesmen added a late goal at 89:40 with Vazquez finishing to the back of the net from a corner kick by Kelly.

Sophomore keeper Tomás Fonseca/Torres Vedras, Portugal started in front of the net for Richard Bland and played the entire 90 minutes, making one save while yielding the one goal.

Richard Bland took a 22-3 advantage in shots against USC Salkehatchie, including 9-2 in attempts on goal.  The Statesmen had a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.  Hernandez led the squad with five shots, three on goal, while Girardi took four shots, two on target.

USC Salkehatchie continues to lead the all-time series between the two schools in the sport of men's soccer, 4-3-3, though Richard Bland has won two-straight matches dating back to last season.