The Oglethorpe men's soccer team got their SAA campaign off to an excellent start Saturday evening in Sewanee, Tenn., defeating home-standing Sewanee, 5-2, to move to 1-0 in conference play.

Senior midfielder Sean King got the scoring started early for the Petrels, tallying a goal in the sixth minute off a cross from Aleks Tanjga. It was King's first goal of the season and Tanjga's third assist. 

The Petrels took control of the game only 11 minutes later when senior defender Nikos Papanikolopoulos turned in an assist from fellow senior defender Justin Graves for a 2-0 Petrel lead in the 15th minute. Papanikolopoulos has now scored three goals on the year coming forward from the back. It was Graves' first point of the year, but he'd pick up two more late in the first half when he scored off an assist from junior midfielder Ellis Curry in the 44th minute. It marked Curry's fifth assist of the year, and gave the Petrels a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Sewanee got a goal back in the 50th minute, cutting the lead to 3-1, but Oglethorpe completely put the game out of reach with a two-minute stretch shortly thereafter. Sophomore midfliedler Nick Muntean scored his fourth goal of the season off King's second assist of the campaign in the 56th minute, then senior forward Nick Williamson followed up with his sixth goal of the season off Papanikolopoulos' first assist in the 58th minute. 

The Petrels had a 5-1 lead with 32 minutes to go, and pretty much cruised home from there. Sewanee scored another goal in the 89th minute to draw the score closer, 5-2, but it was too little, too late.

King, Papanikolopoulos and Graves all posted three-point games, each tallying a goal and an assist. Williamson took three shots and put all three of them on goal. Freshman goalkeeper Vaughn Moore had a decent evening for the Petrels, stopping three of the four shots he faced. 

The Petrels outshot the home-standing Tigers 18-13, including 14-6 on goal. The Petrels put 14 of their 18 shots on target. The contest was physical, as a total of nine yellow cards were doled out. 

The Petrels now stand at 5-2-1 on the season, including 1-0 in SAA competition. They will next take the field next weekend, as they travel to Memphis, Tenn., and Conway, Ark., for their only two-game SAA road trip of the season. They'll take on Rhodes Friday evening at 5 p.m. Eastern, and finish the weekend at Hendrix at 3 p.m. Eastern Sunday afternoon.