EMMITSBURG, Md. – Scott Phinith (Gaithersburg, Md./Magruder) notched his first two collegiate goals to lift Mount St. Mary's past VMI 3-0 in the men's soccer season opener for both teams.

Phinith, who played in 17 games with 17 shots last season as a freshman, found the back of the net in the 24th minute for his first career goal and then added his second tally of the afternoon in the 31st minute to help the Mount to its first win in the season opener since 2003.

Will Thomas (Mount Rainer, Md./The Heights) also scored for the Mount (1-0) while Kyle Patrick (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) and Eric Detzel (York, Pa./Central York) each dished out an assist. Goalkeeper Chris Davis (Townsville, Australia/Kirwan State) made two saves in the winning effort.

Adrian Dominquez recorded three saves for the Keydets (0-1) and Greg Hersh turned away two shots in the loss.

Playing at home in the season opener for the first time since 1998, Mount St. Mary's scored three times in the first half and never looked back to start the season with a victory for the first time since the Mount defeated Rider 3-2 on Aug. 30, 2003.

Phinith got the Mountaineers started when a VMI defender kicked the ball right to him and he found the twine on the left at the 22:57 mark. The sophomore then took a Patrick pass from the right to increase the margin to 2-0 at 30:36.

Detzel, Mount St. Mary's top returning scorer, dished out an assist to Thomas at the 43:10 mark to seal the victory.

The Keydets did not record a shot for the first 58 minutes of the match. Will Quarles, Jr. notched the first VMI shot at 58:31, but his scoring attempt was blocked by the Mount defense. Davis turned away shots by John Sisco in the 69th minute and to Dallas Disbro in the 87th minute before Patrick Karnwie gave the Keydets its final scoring chance, but missed wide in the 88th minute.

The Mount scored three goals in a half for the first time since the squad posted three second half goals in the 2003 season-opening win against the Broncs. Mount St. Mary's also scored in the season opener for the first time since the win against Rider.

Along with Patrick, fellow freshman Chris Wheeler (Newcastle, Australia/St. Francis Xavier), Ian Hendrie (Potomac, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal School) made their collegiate debut in the starting lineup with Phil Kroft (Virginia Beach, Va./Floyd E. Kellam) and Jimmy Kane (Delran, N.J./Delran) saw their first collegiate action off the bench. Thomas and junior Jeremy Kroft (Virginia Beach, Md./Floyd E. Kellam) each made their Mount debut after transferring to Emmitsburg this season.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Sept. 5 at James Madison. Game time is 7 p.m.