HAYWARD, Calif., -- Senior Evan Sanchez scored twice in Cal State East Bay men's soccer 2-0 victory over Southern Nazarene Friday night, September 8 at Pioneer Stadium.
 
East Bay improves to 2-1-1 on the season as they picked up their second shutout win of the season.
 
The Pioneers dominated the game from kickoff and controlled the tempo throughout the game. CSUEB was stout defensively as well stifling the Crimson Storm offensive push while only allowing Southern Nazarene to attempt four shots and two shots on goal for the entire game.
 
East Bay on the other hand attempted 18 total shots including eight shots at the frame. Led by five shots from Evan Sanchez, the Pioneers also had attempts from Jonathan Cuevas (2), Ben Reiter (2), Christian Mendoza (2), Jared Simarago (2), Shubham Kumar (1), Kyle Stokes (1), Alec Hester (1), Jared Johnson (1) and TJ Butler (1).
 
Evan Snachez, a native of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., paced the Pioneers with his team-leading third and fourth goal of the season. This was the first multi-goal performance as a Pioneer. He is now tied for third in the CCAA (California Collegiate Athletic Association) with four goals and fourth in the conference with eight total points.
 
Sanchez put the Pioneers on the board first in the 43rd minute with a beautiful header to the the left side of the net off of a perfect pass through the middle of the defense by Grant LaFleur as CSUEB claimed a 1-0 lead at the intermission. For LaFleur, that was assist number two on the year. On his second goal Sanchez received a pass in front of the box from Chris Sumano, drove around a defender and put a shot in the right corner of the net. Sumano picked up his second assists of the season on the play as well.
 
Cal State East Bay second year head coach Mike Bielski was proud of the tempo in which his team played and the toughness to come away with a big win.
 
"It was great to get a win at home tonight against Southern Nazarene," Bielski said. "The guys came out with a very high tempo which was good considering we started off slow in our last two games. They responded well in training and that led to a great performance. You can see they're starting to click as a whole. They're having a lot of fun out there. Sunday against Westminster will be another challenge and hopefully we can build on tonight in that game."
 
Junior Omar Coronel got the start in goal for East Bay, coming away with two saves while logging all 90 minutes of action. It was Coronel's second start of the season and his first shutout as a Pioneer.
 
East Bay will complete the weekend with a Sunday afternoon matchup against Westminster College (UT) on September 10. Kickoff will be at 11:30 a.m. at Pioneer Stadium.