In complete control throughout the match, the CSUN men’s soccer team cruised to a 5-0 exhibition win against CSU Dominguez Hills at Matador Soccer Field on Saturday night.

Despite the match only being an exhibition, the Matador offense looked dominant from beginning to end against the Division-II powerhouse.

All five goals came from different players. Forward Thomas Ramos opened the scoring in the ninth minute, followed by Chris Smith in the 22nd. Forward Brian Behrad then scored the third in the 52nd with a header from the top of the goal box.

“I wanted to get to the ball first by using my speed and, luckily, I got there,” Behrad said.

Substitute players Luis Gutierrez and Christian Gonzalez rounded up the scoring for the night.

The key player for the match was co-captain and defender Joe Franco. Though he did not have any goals to his name, he set up three of the five goals.

“All week we’ve been working on a certain game plan and tactics,” Franco said. “We had a game plan and everyone was firing on all cylinders.”

The Matadors outshot the Toros 13-4 and had an 8-1 advantage on shots on goal.

On the defensive end, the CSUN midfielders and defenders made sure that the team maintained possession of the ball. Goalkeeper Manabu Kaji did not have to worry about the Toros much, only having to save the ball once in 90 minutes. The Matador defense was so powerful that it didn’t allow CSUDH to get its first shot until the 44th minute.

There were a lot of dirty tackles by both sides throughout the night. One of Behrad’s sliding tackles caused his opponent to flip in mid-air.

Each team got a yellow card to its name for the match. Franco was the recipient for CSUN . The play happened in the 86th minute after a poorly-judged tackle on his part.

Overall, the Matadors looked strong even with 12 new people added to the roster this year.

“We have a lot of continuity with the team and it showed,” CSUN head coach Terry Davila said.

The next match will be the season opener against Canisius on Friday.