PEMBROKE – Newcomer Brett Luccia scored the game's first goal right before the half, and then assisted on Martin Tomter's game-winner in the 76th minute to lead UNCP to its first win of the Phil Hindson era with a 2-1 triumph over visiting Barton Wednesday evening at Varsity Grounds.

The result marked the first win of the 2010 season for UNCP (1-2-0) while also giving Hindson his first victory as the Braves' skipper after two near-misses last week. The Scotland native took over the reigns of the tradition-rich UNCP program in December after spending the last six seasons on the coaching staff at Clemson.

Barton (0-3-0) remained winless on the campaign with the setback, while also dropping its 12th-straight series meeting with the Black and Gold. The Bulldogs last tasted victory against UNCP on the strength of a 1-0 victory in Pembroke on Oct. 28, 1998. They have been outscored in the series by a 43-8 count since that win.

"(The first win) feels good," Hindson said. "The guys played well tonight and I am very proud of them. It was a tough loss the other night (against Lenoir-Rhyne), but we recovered well tonight. We created a lot of chances tonight and, even after they scored the Equalizer, we showed a lot of character coming back from that. Barton made it very difficult for us, and we need to do a better job of putting the game away, but that's the nature of college soccer.

"A lot of young guys stepped up for us again. That's what we need when we have a young team. It's a game-by-game thing, but the guys are working hard and that's all you can really ask of them."

Despite creating a myriad of chances for themselves in the opening period, UNCP seemed snake-bitten, often times watching the ball sail just wide of the woodwork, or finding the hands of Barton goalkeeper Brian Riesenberg. However, the Black and Gold made good on its 10th shot of the first half when veteran Connor O'Boyle found Luccia in open space and the Charlotte native made good with a cannon strike that easily found its way past Riesenberg for the 1-0 advantage.

The story was the same for the Braves in the second half as the scoring chances were plentiful, but the results left the hosts wanting. The visitors would take advantage of the lull by finding the Equalizer off the foot of Erik Pajunk in the 71st minute, but Luccia was in on another scoring play just more than four minutes later when he found fellow freshman Martin Tomter alone in the penalty area and Tomter finished with a point-blank strike past Riesenberg.

The Braves will continue a season-opening five-game home stand on Friday when the squad suits up to battle Pfeiffer (0-2-0) in a 5 p.m. contest at Varsity Grounds. Admission to all 2010 UNCP soccer home games is free.