Box Score ARCATA, Calif. – There's no place like home and Humboldt State men's soccer gave the home fans a winning show in the College Creek Field home opener over Holy Names on Thursday afternoon.
Ryan Connor and
Alan Castillo provided the offense with goals 10 minutes apart, before the Lumberjacks (4-1) defensive unit clamped the Hawks (2-3) offense in the final minutes for the 2-1 victory.
"Today's game was a strong team performance and an excellent win against a very good Holy Names team. We have been struggling to find that kind of consistency in our performances, and today was a big step forward for us," said HSU Head Coach
Fred Jungemann. "The guys played very well for the entire 90 minutes and got a deserved result for their efforts."
HSU fed off the active crowd for the program's fourth win in row, the longest run of victories since the second part of the 2004 campaign.
"The crowd at today's game was awesome and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. We will look forward to hopefully seeing everyone out for Saturday's match," said Jungemann.
After
Connor Wilkinson took the corner,
Riki Michael headed the ball over towards Connor to find the back of the net at 39:38.
HSU maintained the 1-0 lead until adding to it within the first five minutes of the second half. In front of the nets from 10 yards,
Sam Wahl passed to the left corner where Castillo beat the Hawks' keeper for the goal at 49:52.
Holy Names' Jaime Phillips connected on a free kick from 25 yards at 84:03 to pull to within one, 2-1, but the HSU defense locked down the final minutes and did not allow another score.
Jacks goalie
Javier Torres saved two shots of the three on goal he faced. HSU outshot Holy Names by a 17-5 margin.
"We will enjoy this tonight, but then turn our attention to recovery and preparing for another tough match on Saturday against BYU-Hawaii," said Jungemann.
HSU will complete its part of the weekend Lumberjack Classic against BYU-Hawaii on Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m.
-GoJacks-
