Saint Leo, Fla.----The back-to-back South Atlantic Conference champion Wingate University Bulldogs opened the 2016 season in style, picking up a 3-0 victory against 17th-ranked Rollins College in an early season top-25 show down. Wingate improves to 1-0 on the year, while the Tars fall to 0-1.

"I'm pleased with the performance," head coach Gary Hamill says. "It took a while for us to settle down. We scored a couple of great goals and to be fair we opened up the game in the second half and could have easily had a couple more."

Senior midfielder Aksel Juul (Newcastle, England) got the scoring started in the 31st minute. The 2015 All-Region selection took a feed from junior Garret Bridgewater (Cape Carteret, N.C.) and found the back of the net for the first time this year. The two-time All-SAC honoree scored five goals last year.

The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead with six minutes left in the opening half when All-SAC midfielder Callum Ross (Newcastle, England) converted a penalty kick. The junior had seven goals last season, going four-for-four on penalty kicks.

Wingate added to its lead in the 69th minute when junior Christian Szalay (Vienna, Austria) netted a goal in his first game as a Bulldog, with junior Vicente Munoz (Santiago, Chile) notching an assist on the play.

The Bulldogs held a 9-5 advantage in shots on the afternoon, with a 7-1 edge in shots on goal. All-American goalkeeper Pablo Jara (Santiago, Chile) notched a save to register the shutout. Drew Trautmann had four saves for the Tars.

Wingate is back in action Sunday, taking on Saint Leo at 3 p.m.