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PEORIA — Peoria City soccer got everything it wanted in its USL League 2 home opener Saturday at Shea Stadium.
Fans tailgated before the match, sang and chanted during it, and children kicked around soccer balls and frolicked on the pitch after it, meeting players and collecting autographs and pictures.
They saw the City put a dominating effort on the Chicago Dutch Lions for a 4-0 victory, their first of the 2024 season.
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Pepe Mellado, DJ Koulai, Luke Persenico and Danail Sergiev scored Peoria's goals.
Two minutes after Peoria was stopped on a penalty kick, it scored the first goal of the season at Shea Stadium. Former Bradley midfielder Mellado, parked above the box and shaded toward the right side, left-footed a one-timer off a crossing feed from Bradley player Charlie Dickerson past netminder Kaden Simpson inside the right post at 20:54. It held up as the game-winner.
The City took a 2-0 lead in the 33rd minute when forward Persenico stormed down the right side, took a through-pass and turned the corner on the defense to get a clean shot away on the fly. It nicked the netminder on the hand and rolled towards the far post, where forward DJ Koulai arrived on the line and jammed it to the back of the cage.
Koulai, whose full name is Djibongihou “DJ” Koulai, was born in Côte d'Ivoire, Ivory Coast and came to Bradley University in 2023 for his first year of NCAA Division-I soccer.
Persenico made it 3-0 off a corner kick in the 59th minute.
Then Danail Sergiev buried a left-footer for 4-0 just 12 seconds before the 60th minute was completed.
Peoria City next heads to Aurora for a road rematch with the Dutch Lions on Wednesday.
New Coach and more:Everything you need to know about the Peoria City soccer team in 2024
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
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