HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay men's soccer team opened the 2015 season with an impressive 3-0 victory over visiting Dominican under the lights at Pioneer Stadium Thursday night.
"This was a good way to start off the season," said head coach
Andy Cumbo. "We scored good goals at key moments of the game, and played well defensively throughout."
The Pioneers led nearly the entire contest, thanks to sophomore
Michael Paiva's second career goal, which came less than five minutes into the game. He took a pass from
Victor Calderon and dribbled into the box, beating the keeper into the lower right corner of the net from point blank range.
East Bay controlled play for much of the opening frame, but they went into halftime hanging onto a one-goal lead. The score remained 1-0 until the 63rd minute when freshman forward
Jesus Ocegueda made his Pioneer debut a memorable one.
Ocegueda took a pass from senior
Kellen Crow near the middle of the field and blasted a rocket of a shot from 25 yards into the upper left corner of the net to double East Bay's lead.
The Pioneers put a stamp on the victory in the final minutes, as defender
Fernando Herrera notched his first career goal. The freshman from Fremont, Calif. got a pass from fellow rookie
Brett Fuchs on the right side, beat his defender into the box with a nice move, and scored in the right corner.
All told, East Bay racked up 13 shots in the game and held Dominican to just three. They needed just one save from senior goalkeeper
Adrian Topete, who picked up his fourth career victory.
"We are a fairly young team, and we even started the second half with seven freshmen," Cumbo added. "Paiva had a great goal to start the season, Navi scored another impressive goal off a nice pass from Kellen, and the freshman connection between Brett and Nando was a great play to close out the night. Adrian was solid in goal and didn't let much happen in the box."
The Pioneers are back in action at home on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. when they host yet another local non-conference foe in Academy of Art.