COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 18-ranked Ohio State men’s soccer team opened the regular season with a 1-0 win over the College of Charleston Friday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in the nightcap of the Bert & Iris Wolstein Classic. Earlier in the evening, Penn State defeated Buffalo, 5-0, as all four teams started their 2010 campaigns in Columbus.

Sophomore Chris Hegngi scored the game-winner in the 23rd minute off assists from senior captain Sam Scales and freshman Omar Vallejo. Vallejo and Scales teamed up along the right side of the penalty area to play Hegngi the ball near the center of the penalty area. The Silver Spring, Md., native then launched the ball over the right shoulder of Cougar goalkeeper Kees Heemskerk for the first tally of the 2010 season.

Hegngi helped pace the Buckeyes with three of their 16 shots. Ohio State out-shot CofC by a 16-11 margin, including a 12-5 advantage in the first half made possible by the stingy OSU defense.

“The key to the win tonight was to contain [Charleston’s] attack, but we also played well on the offensive side of the ball,” Ohio State head coach John Bluem said. “We had to defend against their quality forwards, who are very fast. We had to adjust once we realized how good Kareem Yearwood was.”

Yearwood came out firing for the Cougars, registering two shots within the first five minutes of play and giving Buckeye goalkeeper Matt Lampson the opportunity to grab two saves from the get-go. The sophomore from Hilliard, Ohio, finished the night with five stops, including one on a header from Shawn Fergguson as time expired in the second period.

Since 1991, Ohio State is 14-3-3 in its first home game of the year, while John Bluem is 7-2-2 in home season openers in his 14 seasons as head coach of the Buckeyes. They will look for the second win of 2010 at 2:30 p.m. Sunday against Buffalo in the final match of the Bert & Iris Wolstein Classic.

“If we play as well against Buffalo as we did tonight, I think we will have a very good chance. I think they could be tentative at the start of the game and we will try to expose some of that. They had some dangerous attacking players, so there is always the fear that if you are overconfident, it is going to cost you.”

It will be the first meeting in program history for Buffalo and Ohio State.