By Mark DeHaan

The Calvin men's soccer team hosted Kalamazoo College for its home opener of the conference season  on Saturday afternoon.

Outshooting the visitors 18-5, the Knights pressured the Hornets all game long en route to a 3-0 victory at Zuidema Field.

In the opening ten minutes, senior Travis Vegter (Hudsonville/Unity Christian HS) led the offensive pressure with a pair of shots on goal, one of which hit the crossbar and ricocheted out of bounds.

The Knights then got on the scoreboard in the 23rd minute. Controlling the ball on the endline, Vegter found sophomore Isky Van Doorne (Calgary, AB/Western Canada HS) in the center of the box who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner of the net for the opening goal.

A minute later, a penalty kick opportunity for the Knights was shot over the crossbar by sophomore Stephan Hooker (Hudsonville/Unity Christian HS).

Despite the miss from the spot, Calvin did get an insurance goal later in the first half. A long ball was played forward from midfield to the top of the box, and headed on by freshman Micah Beard into the box to junior Taylor Pruis (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian HS). Pruis then took a step toward the endline and beat the Hornets keeper to the near post, blasting home the second goal of the game with a second remaining on the clock for a 2-0 Calvin advantage at half.

The Knights held an 11-2 edge in shots at half, four of which were on goal.

Out of the break, sophomore Hooker redeemed himself in the 63rd minute. Receiving a pass from Vegter, Hooker hit a curling shot which found the top right corner of the net to put the Knights comfortably ahead 3-0.

The Calvin defense then locked down the Kalamazoo offense by allowing just two shots in the final half hour of play, neither of which were on goal, as the Knights secured the 3-0 victory.

Calvin outshot the Hornets 18-5 for the game while also holding a 4-1 advantage in corner kicks.

Junior goalkeeper Niko Giantsopolous (Markham, ON/St. Augustine Catholic HS) had two saves in recording his third shutout victory of the season.

"Kalamazoo is a really good team," said head coach Ryan Souders. "We talked about doing our job from the first minute, and it took us a couple minutes to get going, but then we moved the ball pretty well, created some chances, and got a great opening goal from Isky."

With the win, the Knights improve to 2-0 in conference and 5-2 overall while Kalamazoo falls to 2-3-2 overall and 0-2-1 in MIAA play.

Calvin now looks forward to Tuesday when it welcomes Hope College to Zuidema Field. Tuesday's contest is scheduled to kick-off at 4:00 p.m.