LEWISTON — Bates College got all it could ask for its 50th men’s soccer home opener Tuesday night — a beautiful late-summer evening, a big, boisterous home crowd supporting a good cause, and an impressive victory over a non-conference rival.

John Murphy tallied a goal and an assist as Bates rallied with three unanswered goals in the second half for a 3-1 victory over St. Joseph’s College under the lights at Garcelon Field.

“It’s great to play on this field at night, and they were (Great Northeast Athletic) conference champions, so it’s also a very good win,” said Murphy, Bates’ senior captain. “Tonight was more than just a game for us.”

Indeed, the Bobcats (1-1) wore special jerseys commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and are auctioning them off to benefit Families for Freedom, which raises money towards college scholarships for children who lost parents on 9/11. As of Tuesday night, they had raised more than $6,500 and still had jerseys up for auction. Bids can be made by email at [email protected], with the top 20 receiving a jersey.

Tyler Schleich and Ethan Hirshberg also scored for Bates. Teddy Palmer had the Monks’ goal.

Bates trailed 1-0 at the half despite controlling most of the action. Drawing inspiration from the date and the occasion, according to Bates coach Stewart Flaherty, the Bobcats came out with more energy than the Monks for the second half.

“We talked about the date and the occasion and we talked about there are times in life you’ll face real adversity and being 1 nil down in a soccer game isn’t real adversity,” he said. “Last week, (in a 2-0 loss at Williams) we didn’t react very well to going down 1 nil down. We kept stringing passes together. They acted like men and I thought we deserved the second half.”

Bates outshot St. Joe’s 24-8.

The Bobcats took control at 1:18 of the second half when sophomore defenseman Schleich took a feed from Murphy and found the top left corner to tie the game.

“Bates came out flying and I think we were a little bit flat, so we kind of struggled to deal with their pressure,” St. Joe’s coach Steve Babineau. “I think from there it put us back on our heels and we couldn’t gain possession back of the soccer ball.”

That’s because Bates did such a good job of taking care of the ball, even amidst heavy Monks’ pressure. Murphy fought through heavy traffic to score what proved to be the game-winner at 12:39.

“I just cut it back and I was either trying to put it across or put it in. I got a lucky bounce from the goalie and it ended up in the bottom of the net,” Murphy said.

Murphy celebrated the goal by leaping in the air and pumping his fist in front of the Bates bench. The emotion was a product of the big-game atmosphere at Garcelon and  built-up frustration over some missed opportunities in the first half. The near misses included one header that sailed just over the crossbar and, only moments later, a shot that hit high off the left post. In the 22nd minute, he kicked a low line drive bound for the bottom corner that a diving Monks’ goalie Kenny Grade deflected with his left hand.

St. Joe’s (1-3-1) had the prettiest goal of the night, a nice header by Palmer redirecting a Garrett Darnell corner kick at 15:10. The Bobcats tilted the field not long after that for the balance of the half.

“The evidence was right there. We knew we were knocking on the door pretty much the whole first half,” Hirshberg said. “We knew if we just played our game we’d put them in, and it came quick in the second half.”

Hirshberg ended the deluge a little over 15 minutes into the second half, outracing Grade to a long, over the top pass from Jonathan Lin.

“A hundred percent of the time that means the goalie’s coming for you,” Hirshberg said. “I just tried to poke a touch in there before he came through and luckily I got the ball first. But I definitely paid the price for it. I think I took a double-fist to the face.”

Hirshberg ended up flat on his back on the Garcelon FieldTurf but still watched the ball just nick the post and cross the goal line.

“We’ve been looking forward to this season for a long time. We’re excited about the talent we have,” Hirshberg said. “To finally bring it out in front of our home crowd, especially on 9/11, against a good opponent, too, was really exciting for us.”