BOSTON, Mass. - Two goals from the foot of senior Duncan Bochicchio (Los Angeles, Calif.) powered the Emerson men's soccer squad to a 3-1 triumph, its first win of the 2016 season, over Salem State to open up their home schedule at Rotch Field on Saturday afternoon.

Emerson improves to 1-2, while Salem St. falls to 1-1-1. 

Both Emerson and Salem State came up empty in the first 45 minutes, but each team had numerous chances throughout the half to get themselves on the board. The Lions' first scoring chance came during the 20th minute on a shot by junior Marco Correia (Tarrafal, Cape Verde) that went high. Four minutes later, senior Hatim Belmadini's (Casablanca, Morocco) header narrowly missed putting the Vikings up a goal, but Emerson junior goalie Lucas Fischer (Atlanta, Ga.) scooped it up. 

With 15 minutes left on the clock, Emerson gained its second scoring chance. On a corner kick from senior Samir Beria (Sterling, Va.), sophomore Paul Bou Aziz (Nice, France) recovered the ball by the right post, but his shot was quickly recovered by Salem State junior goalie Greg Enos (Peabody, Mass.) and the score remained 0-0.

At the end of the first half, the Lion held the Vikings to one shot and held the 3-1 shot edge.

The second half continued to be a battle as to which team would strike first as the game started to pick up the pace. Emerson, however, would win that battle. Bochicchio netted his first goal of the game on a crossed passed from the left side from senior Austin Alphonse (Durham, N.H.) and knocked in a header from the right to put the Lions up 1-0 (33:31). Bochicchio scooped up the ball off a save from Enos and buried his second net of the game to give Emerson the 2-0 advantage (26:06). 

Salem State decided they were going to get into the scoring mix and netted a goal of their own six minutes later. Senior Kelly Abreu (Salem, Mass.) broke away from a sea of Emerson defenders and passed the ball off to freshman Lance Francois (Everett, Mass.), who snuck the ball past Fischer to cut the score in half at 2-1 (20:41). 

The Lions now had the Vikings breathing down their necks, but were determined to not let the lead slip with lots of time still left on the clock. With just under seven minutes left in regulation and help from sophomore Tyler Yassky (Nyack, N.Y.), Bou Aziz tallied his first goal of 2016 when the ball bounced off Enos' hands and into the net and locked up the Lions' 3-1 victory. 

Emerson returns to the field on Thursday in a road tilt against Lesley at 8:00 p.m. Salem State will travel to Westfield on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. start.