ARCATA – In their season-opener, the Humboldt State men's soccer team used three second-half goals to defeat the Warriors of William Jessup University, 3-0, on Saturday in Redwood Bowl.  With the win the Jacks are 1-0-0 on the season while William Jessup falls to 0-2-0.  The win is also the first men's victory for new head coach Christian Johnson.

“We saw a lot of what we worked on for the last three weeks out there today,” Johnson said.  “Especially the way we possessed the ball, the way the back four played together and our composure.”

The Jacks dominated play in the first half and had several opportunities to score.  HSU's best chance came in the 22nd minute as Josh Suggs took a long pass from Tim Haden and shot the ball from just inside 18 yards, but the ball sailed over the crossbar.  In the 28th and again in the 43rd minute, the Jacks seemingly put the ball in the net, but both were denied on offside calls.  The teams went to the half tied, 0-0.

The second half was again controlled by the Jacks, but in this half they made the Warriors pay. In the 55th minute junior Scott Mariani took a pass inside the 18-yard box from Tony Ramirez and shot it to the far post to give HSU a 1-0 lead.

Six minutes later, Mariani assisted on a Josh Suggs goal.  Mariani played a long through-ball down the right side of the field.   Suggs, who led the team with seven shots, took it and blasted a shot to the far post to increase the Lumberjacks lead to 2-0.

The final goal came at 82:04.  Daniel Adamski put a through-ball onto the foot of freshman Peter Darquea who beat the William Jessup keeper to the near post and gave HSU the winning margin.

“Once we saw what they were doing in the first half,” Johnson added, “we changed our strategy a bit.  In the second half we went to more long ball and punished William Jessup.”

Humboldt State plays its next three matches on the road. On Thursday the Jacks are at Seattle Pacific, followed by a Saturday, Sept. 5 match at Western Washington and then finishing the trip on Monday, Sept. 7 at Saint Martin's.

Warriors (0-2-0) vs. Lumberjacks (1-0-0)
 Date: Aug 29, 2009  Attendance: 207
 Weather: sunny

 Goals by period       1  2  Tot
 -------------------------------
 Warriors............  0  0 -  0
 Lumberjacks.........  0  3 -  3

 SCORING SUMMARY:
  1.  54:23 HSU MARIANI, Scott (1) (RAMIREZ, Tony) - Mariani takes pass inside 18 yd box and shot into the far side of net
  2.  60:55 HSU SUGGS, Josh (1) (MARIANI, Scott) - long through ball to Suggs shot into the right side of the goal
  3.  82:04 HSU DARQUEA, Peter (1) (ADAMSKI, Daniel) - Darquea takes a throughball and scores to the near post

 Shots: Warriors 6, Lumberjacks 17
 Saves: Warriors 4 (DUNN, Jeff 4), Lumberjacks 2 (VERLE, Kyle 2)