The temperature at Matador Soccer Field wasn’t the only thing that was blazing hot on Friday afternoon.
The CSUN men’s soccer team was on fire at both ends of the field in its season opener against the University of Detroit Titans. On offense, the Matadors fired off 22 shots, 11 in each half, while their defense held the Titans to only nine attempts, resulting in a 6-1 rout of Detroit.
“It was a good first game and I had a lot of fun out there, and we’ll keep going with this and see how far we get,” freshman midfielder Mattias Bonvehi said.
It only took CSUN four minutes to get on the scoreboard. Senior defender Matt Tracy led a Matador break and crossed the ball to junior midfielder Devin Deldo, who fired the ball past Detroit’s sophomore goalkeeper Bryan Kloss for the first of six goals for the Matadors.
Seven minutes later, junior forward Moy Gomez charged in from the left side, looking to score a goal. Gomez fired a shot that bounced off Kloss, but Gomez tracked down the ball and successfully fired a rebound shot into the net.
Detroit pulled a goal back in the 31st minute, as redshirt freshman Jacob Munchiando successfully headed in a corner kick from junior Simon Zahra. Eight minutes later CSUN got the lead back to three, as sophomore forward Michael Clegg led a Matador charge and then touched the ball to freshman midfielder Nicholas Hamilton, who finished off the break by putting in his first goal as a Matador.
CSUN continued to click in the second half. Sophomore forward Sunghyun Kim scored in the 58th minute off a pass from Deldo and freshman forward Camilo Rojas capped off the offensive onslaught with two goals inside a one-minute span. Rojas’ first goal came in the 69th minute off a pass from senior forward Fergie Agwu. Rojas then intercepted Detroit’s kick-off, charged towards the net and scored in the 70th minute.
CSUN’s win over Detroit means the Matadors have yet to lose in 10 season openers. Head coach Terry Davila said there’s still room to improve.
“There was a lot of heart, a lot of desire. There were moments of great play that, of course, resulted in six goals, but the quality is not as high as we want it to be,” Davila said. “We just have to get a little more precise around the goal, especially our final pass.”
CSUN played well on defense even though they were without senior defender Sean Franklin, who is out with an injury to his left arm. Davila hopes to have Franklin back by late September.
CSUN hits the road for its next two games, heading to Orange County for the Cal State Fullerton Tournament starting on September 7. CSUN’s first opponent will be the Michigan Wolverines on Friday at 5 p.m. and the Matadors will finish up on Sunday against Memphis at 4:30 p.m.
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