WAYNE, Pa. - Freshman Andrew Tinna (Tunkhannock, PA/Tunkhannock) scored 5 goals in his collegiate debut to lead the Northampton men's soccer team to a convincing 7-1 victory over Valley Forge Military College on Thursday afternoon at Trojan Field in their season opener.

Reginald Wilson (Monrovia, Liberia/J.W. Harris ) got the Spartans on the board first, converting a pass from Tyler Eichelbaum (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth ) for a 1-0 Spartan lead.  After increasing the lead to 2-0, Brad Watson of the Trojans found the back of net past Northampton goalkeeper James D'Amato (Tobyhanna, PA/Pocono Mt. West ) to cut the margin to 2-1.  The Spartans added two more tallies before halftime to make the score 4-1 at the break. 

Igor Malaquias (Vila Belha, Brazil /Colegio Ateneu do Espirito Santo) had a goal and an assist, while Eichelbaum finished with 3 assists.  Omar Ahmed (East Stroudsburg, PA/East Stroudsburg South) added 2 assists and D'Amato finished with 11 saves to lead the Spartans.

Tinna's five goals tied the all-time single game record at Northampton, held by Joey Jacona (East Stroudsburg, PA/East Stroudsburg South ) (twice) and Baidy Ba.  Tinna's record-tying performance comes just one day short of exactly one year when Jacona put 5 goals on Lehigh Carbon on September 8, 2016. 

The victory was also the first for new Head Coach Craig Root, who took over the Spartan program in August.  "It was a physical contest," remarked Root, "but I thought the guys did a good job keeping their composure and focusing on soccer."

The Spartans, now 1-0-0 overall, return to action on Saturday when they travel to Raritan Valley Community College to face the Lions at 1:30pm.