Shreveport - The Centenary men's soccer team will open its 2019 campaign with a non-conference match Friday at 7:30 p.m. against the East Texas Baptist University Tigers at Cornish Field in Marshall, Texas.

The Gents defeated LSU-Alexandria by a score of 2-0 last week in a home exhibition match in which they also statistically dominated. The Gents tallied nine shots on goal while holding the Generals to just one and kept them off the scoreboard with solid defense and controlled the ball with a steady and aggressive offensive approach.

Head coach Kyle Symcazk enters his third full-time season as head coach of the Gents after serving as the interim head coach in 2016.

"I was very pleased with how the guys performed in the preseason exhibition", said Symcazk. The first preseason game is always exciting because the players finally get to go against someone new after a week of competing against one another. I thought that we hit on several areas of the game plan that I wanted us to focus on and the result was a great building block for us moving forward."

The Gents boast a deep roster which includes eight new freshmen and is led by sophomore goalie Sami Borchalli, who started 16 games last season. Junior forward Gin Pau returns after leading the team with give goals last season. Senior midfielder Gabe Rodriguez led the Gents with three assists and a goal in 2018. Senior forward Scott Halper, who tallied five goals in 18 starts as a sophomore in 2017, is back for his final season in maroon and white.

The Gents and ETBU have met five previous times with Centenary holding a 3-2 edge in the all-time series having last met in 2017 in a game won by ETBU, 2-1, in Shreveport. 

Both live video stream and live stats will be available for Friday's match at the links below:

LIVE VIDEO: http://bit.ly/GoETBUTigersWATCH

LIVE STATS: http://bit.ly/ETBUmsLS