Drexel open spring season with win over Canadian club North Scarborough SC

A Drexel team that struggled to score last season exploded for five goals in their first spring exhibition match of the year against Canadian youth club North Scarborough SC on Sunday morning.

Missing four departing seniors from their 2016 roster and a fifth player who plans to transfer, the Dragons didn’t look that different from the team that went 1-14-2 in the fall. But a trio of rising seniors did show well in their first action of the spring exhibition season.

That trio includes Dakota Peterson, a midfielder out of the Colorado Rapids Academy, who patrolled the midfielder, midfielder Erik Alexanderrson and Spanish forward Xavier Bou Hernandez, who was involved in a healthy percentage of Drexel’s scoring chances on the day.

Other notable contributors on the day included rising sophomore forward Carlos Cuevas, an Orlando City Academy alum and rising junior Sebastien Cabral.

Four of Drexel’s five goals came after the break after Alexandersson opened the scoring in the first half. The game was the third in three days for North Scarborough, which played Temple on Friday night and La Salle on Saturday.

Hernandez had the second goal and the Dragons ended the half with three goals in the final 12 minutes from defender Daniel Klemm, who headed home a corner from Peterson, Cabral and Cuevas, who buried a shot first time that beat the keeper to his right.

“We had good moments of running forward and getting numbers into the penalty box,” head coach Doug Hess said. “We had intent to play forward and we scored five goals, which is good.”

Drexel will continue its spring exhibition slate hosting NJIT at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 11.