WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Behind a first-half goal from freshman Ben Zakowski and a second-half score from junior Santo Arena, the Monmouth University men team defeated Siena College, 2-1, to record its first win of the season Wednesday night.

The Hawks improved to 1-8-1 and 1-2-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference encounter.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys and some new guys that are starting for us, and we haven’t been able to get over the hurdle,” Monmouth head coach Robert McCourt said. “We finally got one tonight, so it feels good. Hopefully we can build on this.”

In the 40th minute, junior Pablo Fonseca played a ball to Arena up the right sideline. Arena sent a perfect long cross to the head of Zakowski, who scored.

In the 69th minute, Arena gathered a rebound, made a move to his right, and fired the ball to the upper left corner for a 2-0 lead.

Siena added a goal in the 85th minute.

Monmouth redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Sean Murray made six saves in the win.

The Hawks will travel to Rider University for a 7 p.m. Saturday match-up.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.