By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — When a St. Augustine Prep defender took down Michael Izquierdo just outside the box in the 31st minute, there was a pep in the step of the Eagles as they gathered their formation together for the ensuing free kick. They knew what was coming — a firecracker from senior midfielder Enrique Fiallos. Just like he did in the Eagles’ season-opening, 2-0 win over Absegami, Fiallos drilled a free kick for a goal — and this time one was enough, as EHT stayed unbeaten on the young season with a 1-0 win over the Hermits on Tuesday night at Silver Eagle Stadium. Hermits’ junior keeper Matt Heist had little chance of stopping Fiallos’ free kick, as a drilled it into the upper left corner — not an easy shot as the free kick came from the left side of the field. Heist was able to get a hand on it, but Fiallos put the shot in the perfect place. “I work on them a lot. It doesn’t just come naturally, you have to work them,” Fiallos said. “It was right on the edge of the box, and I like those. We all work on those shots, and some of our guys will take the farther ones, but I like to take the ones that are right around the edge of the box.” Click here to view a photo gallery from this game “We were excited for this one. This is a game (against Prep) that I think every team points to on their schedule to come out and try to compete with a great team like Prep. We knew if we could get through Gami, at Gami, and continued to practice and be healthy, we knew we could do something special tonight,” said EHT coach Pete Lambert. “We have a solid group of solid group of juniors and seniors who have all bought in. We’re going to battle for 80 minutes, up or down, and that’s what our goal was. I thought we were flat a little bit in the first half. Maybe we were a little bit over-excited, a little too amped up, we had a good crowd, but we regrouped at halftime and I thought we played better in the second half. It’s special for Enrique to get a goal like that in the first half, but we knew (Prep) was going to come out firing on all cylinders. We had to match that and be better, and I thought our boys hung in there. Our guys off the bench did a phenomenal job of competing for 5, 10 minutes at a clip.” Egg Harbor Township defender Alex Dessoye prepares for a throw-in during the Eagles' 1-0 win over St. Augustine Prep on Tuesday night. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O'Sullivan) Egg Harbor Township defender Alex Dessoye prepares for a throw-in during the Eagles’ 1-0 win over St. Augustine Prep on Tuesday night. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) The EHT defense came up big, as twins Robert and Alex Dessoye teamed up with Amir Brock on the back line to hold Hermits scoring threats Christian Bik and Niko Basolis in check. Goalie Matt Moreno, who has yet to allow a goal so far this season, also came up with some big saves in the second half. “We haven’t beaten the Prep in a while, even with our best defender ever, Sean McLaughlin, we haven’t beaten the Prep. But this is a team effort, we’re not individuals, we’re all just one team and we shut them out as a team,” Robert Dessoye said. “Matt Moreno is a great goalie. We don’t try to do anything fancy in the back. We know Matt’s a great goalie and he will save anything that we let get through. So we’re comfortable just letting them shoot from 20 yards out.” “All three of them, Rob, Alex and Amir, have been doing really well. We haven’t conceded a goal in the first two games, and that’s a great way to start the year,” Fiallos said. Lambert said holding Bik and Basolis scoreless was a tall task, but was a challenge his defense was up to. “Those are two very good players. Bik is something special. He plays a lot like Enrique in the center of the field and gets a lot of great touches on the ball. And they have some speed and muscle up top with Nico,” Lambert said. With quality wins over Absegami and St. Augustine Prep to start the season, Lambert said his team is playing with a lot of confidence, and that’s a good sign heading into the heart of the Cape-Atlantic League American Conference schedule. “As long as we are not giving up goals, I think we can stay in a lot of games and compete with a lot of very good teams like the Prep,” Lambert said. “It was fun to have this as our second game, and I think great things can happen. These guys are very coachable and they get the fans out here, they have a lot of support behind them. I’m hoping for great things this year and I know they are, too.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays