Sergio Santos, Roman Celantano lead Cincinnati to 1-0 victory over Revolution

CINCINNATI (AP) — Sergio Santos scored in the second half and Roman Celentano made it stand up as FC Cincinnati edged New England 1-0, beating the Revolution at TQL Stadium for the first time on Saturday night.

Neither team scored until Santos took a pass from Pavel Bucha in the 65th minute and found the net for the first time this season. Santos has scored eight of his 27 career goals in three seasons with Cincinnati (4-2-1). The rest of them came in four seasons with the Philadelphia Union. Bucha’s assist was his third of the season after notching five in 33 career starts last season.

Celentano finished with three saves in posting his third clean sheet of the season for Cincinnati. It was his 27th shutout in his 97th career start.

Aljaz Ivacic saved four shots in goal for the Revolution (1-4-1). Ivacic had two saves and Celentano one in a scoreless first half.

New England was the only Eastern Conference club that Cincinnati had not beaten at home after entering play 0-4-1 all time.

Cincinnati improves to 3-0-1 at home and won for the first time this season without Kévin Denkey scoring the winner.

Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan was a first-round pick of the Revolution in 2003 when he was the runner-up for rookie of the year. It was the club’s 200th match since joining the league in 2019. Cincinnati is 68-86-46 overall but 54-27-28 under Noonan. The club is also 31-8 in one-goal matches since 2023 — nobody else has won even 20.

New England has scored just four goals in its second season under Caleb Porter. Ivacic has surrendered seven goals in six starts.

The Revolution travel to play Atlanta United on Saturday. Cincinnati travels to play D.C. United on Saturday.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer