Mustangs men’s soccer won its first conference game of the season against Santa Rosa following two tie games against Modesto Junior College and American River College. The 4-2 score brought victory in the team’s second Big 8 home game this afternoon.
Forward Angel Lopez led the Mustangs (4-5-4) to victory, netting all four of the team’s goals.
Santa Rosa (4-4-2) scored its two goals in the second half courtesy of midfielder Logan Myers and forward Alan Soto.
The Mustangs took the lead 24 minutes into the first half after Lopez scored his first goal in which he put the ball in the back of the net with a far post shot after entering the box from his right side.
Delta didn’t waste any time on offense in the second 45 minutes as Lopez scored two more goals in the first nine minutes of the second half to put the Mustangs up 3-0.
The Mustang forward then culminated his scoring with the fourth goal in the 70th minute after dribbling the ball from midfield and taking on two defenders.
Delta dedicated itself to tightening its defense later in the second half as Santa Rosa grew more aggressive on offense in its attempts to shorten the Mustangs’ lead and stay in the game.
Soto’s late goal in the 84th minute cut Delta’s lead to two goals, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Mustangs from coming away with the win.
Delta is recovering players after starting the season with several injuries, and head coach Joshua Bradley points out how this has helped his team improve.
“We’re getting more players healthy after having several injuries. This makes us deeper on the bench and allows us to have more options,” said Bradley.
Even as the team picks up its first conference win, Bradley still thinks his team has several things to improve on, including defense.
“We’re working on improvement day-by-day and we’ve still got a long way to go,” said Bradley. “We have to get better at seeing out games. We’ve got to focus on solidifying our back line, we’ve given up easy late goals in the last few games.”
Lopez is among several players coming back from injury, and states his four goals are the result of his desire to come back and play on the field again.
“It’s the hunger that I have to want to play,” said Lopez. “Coming out playing is a blessing for me, and it motivates me to help out the team in any way I can.”
The forward also said he and his teammates need to keep a high performance level during the entire game if the Mustangs want to continue getting more wins.
“Just as coach (Bradley) told us, it’s something mental we got to work on. We have to play the whole 90 minutes well, not just one half,” said Lopez.
The Mustangs will play their next game this coming Tuesday when they visit Cosumnes River College.