GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University opened its 2021 spring men's soccer schedule with a 3-1 non-conference victory over King University Wednesday night at Pioneer Field.

Harry Easterby, Jean-Pierre Vital and Michele Di Miele all scored for the Pioneers (1-0-0), who outshot the Tornado (0-1-0) by a 13-6 margin.

Damien Baltide assisted on the goals by Easterby and Vital, which gave Tusculum a 2-0 lead at halftime. King cut the deficit to 2-1 when Ruben Laureano scored off a broken play in the 63rd minute, but Di Miele headed home a header pass from Sander Johansen in the 65th minute to close the scoring.

Tusculum opened the scoring at 12:30 as a corner kick led to a shot from Baltide that was saved by King keeper Dalton Gammon, but Easterby pounced on the rebound and took a shot that caromed off Gammon and into the goal for a 1-0 Pioneer advantage.

At 20:12, the Pioneers went up 2-0 as Baltide fed Vital on a sharp angle to the left of the goal, and the freshman curled a shot over Gammon to the far upper corner.

King, which had one shot in the first half, broke through at 62:16 when a misplay in the back end by the Pioneers allowed Laureano to collect a loose ball and deposit a shot in the open net.

Just over two minutes later, a break led to the Pioneers' third goal as Johansen headed to the center of the box for Di Miele, and the freshman headed home the insurance tally.

Tusculum had a 5-0 advantage in corner kicks in the match, while King was whistled for eight fouls to seven by the Pioneers.

Joao Kozlowski finished with two saves in goal for the Pioneers in his Tusculum debut. Gammon had three saves in the first half and Collin Parsons had one in the second half for the Tornado.

The Pioneers will begin their six-game South Atlantic Conference schedule with a match against Mars Hill on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Pioneer Field.