SALAMANCA, Mexico – June 7, 2018 – The U.S. Men’s National Team picked up their second win of the Hockey Series Open in Salamanca, Mexico Thursday afternoon against FIH Hero World Ranked No. 66 Puerto Rico. Much like their play the day prior, USA maintained control and set the tone early in a 8-0 victory, with six different players registering goals in the contest. The biggest challenge for the team today was playing against a virtually unknown opponent in Puerto Rico. Despite this, USA stayed true to most of their team goals throughout the match.

"I think we scored a couple good ones," said Rutger Wiese, U.S. Men's National Team Head Coach. "Like I said we played against a team we haven't defended against. Big props to the Puerto Rico players and coaching staff. They played great today. It was difficult to find openings and I don't think we always took advantage of the opportunities we were represented with. We're going to have to clean that up a little bit."

"None of us have played Puerto Rico before so we didn't know what to expect," said Alex Grassi (Brookeville, Md.) following the game. "We controlled most of the game, but we could have been a little more technical inside the 25 [yard line], but overall I like the way we controlled the game. Things looked pretty clean."

USA opened the first quarter similar to their play in their opening match, pressing quickly and often. That yielded swift results on the scoreboard as well when USA set up for a penalty corner in the 6th minute. Aki Kaeppeler (Stuttgart, Germany) scored on the play in well-executed fashion to put the red, white and blue up 1-0. USA couldn't double the score moments later on another penalty corner chance, but Christian De Angelis (Doylestown, Pa.) connected on a field goal in the 10th minute to make it 2-0. The tempo would remain in their favor as Puerto Rico struggled to settle down defensively or find clean outlets on clear attempts. USA took advantage on the turnovers and turned them into more scoring opportunities, but Puerto Rico was up to the challenge each time as the first quarter came to a close. USA settled down in the second quarter and was more patient in ball control. This led to back-to-back penalty corners but USA could not find the net on either attempt. Back the other way, Puerto Rico continued to strive to get anything going offensively as USA refused to let them cross the center line. With time running short in the half, Puerto Rico kept solid on defense before captain Kelvin Rivera was issued a yellow card before the horn signaled the break.

The third quarter saw USA’s perseverance on offense finally pay off with rapid scores by JaJa Kentwell (Spring City, Pa.), Deegan Huisman (Almere, The Netherlands) and Alex Grassi (Brookeville, Md.) in the first five minutes of the second half to make it 5-0 for USA. Meanwhile, the team’s pressure on Puerto Rico during clearing attempts resulted in the team making critical errors, turnovers and subsequently, more penalty corners for USA. Kaeppeler converted one of those tries to make it 6-0 prior to the fourth quarter. Another turnover by Puerto Rico set up a long pass to Johnny Orozco (Ventura, Calif.), who quickly turned and scored on a field goal in the 57th minute. USA was then awarded a penalty stroke in the 58th minute, which was taken by Kaeppeler. The shot was hard and beat goalkeeper Orlando Gonzalez, but the ball hit the left post and crossbar. Following the reset, and with time short, USA set up one final play that Paul Singh (Simi Valley, Calif.) sent into the circle and was tipped in by a patient Kentwell to make it 8-0 in the final minute.

While the team looked good offensively, the squad knew it fell short of what they planned to accomplish in a full 60 minutes.

"I think we needed to be reminded a couple of times," commented Grassi. "But for the most part I think we executed them pretty well. We can always improve but I think we looked pretty well today."

"Parts of the game we accomplished [our goals]," added Wiese, reflecting on the game. "But we are here as the United States and we want to do that through an entire game. We will clean up a couple things and be back tomorrow morning to practice."

USA will be back on the pitch for their third game of the Hockey Series Open on Saturday, June 9 against No. 39 Mexico. Game time is set for 6 p.m. ET. Watch the U.S. Men's National Team throughout the Hockey Series Open on live stream on the event page by clicking here.