Upland, Ind. – Junior Theo Maye shushed the once vocal home crowd during his opening goal celebration. His first tally of the season set the tone Wednesday evening (Aug. 24) as the Aquinas men's soccer team won its season opener 2-0 on the road over the Taylor Trojans (0-2).

Maye's first-half silencer was his 13th career goal for the program. Jasper Schinkel added a second-half insurance goal before the Saints (1-0) had to fight to the final whistle with 10 men following an 80th minute red card.

The first scoring threat of the game came in the 16th minute when Saints forward Mason Sills got a clean header on target, but placed the shot in the middle of the goal. Trojan goalkeeper Sam Spiegel easily grabbed the save.

Three minutes later, Aquinas was given a short-lived scare when the head official accidently flashed a red card instead of a yellow card to midfielder Maye. The mistake was quickly corrected, and more crunching tackles soon followed. Saints midfielder Damir Sabanovic picked up another yellow card in the 29th minute.  

Aquinas nearly broke the scoreless deadlock in the 32nd minute on a long-range effort from Andrea Ghiggini that was tipped over the crossbar. 

The Saints' relentless pressure was finally rewarded four minutes later when Maye buried a rebound off Spiegel to score the first AQ goal of the new season.

The Aquinas back line, anchored by defenders Ghiggini, Joshua Clemitson and Jesunifemi Ojutalayo, prevented the Taylor offense from getting a shot off in the first half. By the end of the contest, the Saints outshot the Trojans 15-6 (9-1 shots on target).

The Trojans first shot of the game came in the 51st minute.

Schinkel doubled the Saints lead to 2-0 in the 66th minute. The junior forward gathered a Fin Pittock pass behind Taylor's defense, dribbled around Spiegel and slotted the ball into an open net.

Aquinas was issued its third yellow card of the game in the 75th minute to midfielder Jai Tahlan. Less than five minutes later, Tahlan went hard into another challenge and was shown a second yellow card to be sent off. 

Despite the red card, the 10-man Aquinas squad held strong over the last 10 minutes to secure a season-opening 2-0 victory. Goalkeeper Antonio Strassioto had to make one key save in the final minutes to preserve his clean sheet.

AQ is back in action on Saturday, August 27, with another away contest against Mount Vernon in Ohio. The road-tested Saints will play their home opener next Wednesday, August 31, against Saint Xavier at the AQ Athletic Field.