Men's Soccer Gets First GSAC Win

Master's lit up the scoreboard with four second half goals to get their first conference win of the season, 5-1 over the Life Pacific Warriors Saturday in Santa Clarita.

Giorgio Martino had a pair of goals with Mark Spencer, Silas Chavez and Daniel Cota each netting one for the Mustangs (3-8-2, 1-4).

The Mustangs were able to get nine shots off in the first half, with the Warriors supplying strong defense to turn away any scoring attempt. Martino scored his first goal in the 16th minute off an assist from Matt Picht for the early Mustang advantage. And while Life Pacific could only muster two shots on goal in that first half, the second found the back of the net to send the teams to the locker room tied 1-1.

"I was happy the way we played, even in the first half," said Master's Head Coach Jim Rickard. "I decided at halftime to be positive. So I walked in there and I said, 'You guys are winning this game 5-1. If you do what you need to do and you shut them out in the second half, we will score four goals and we will win 5-1.' I was thanking Danny at the end because his goal at the end made my prediction come to fruition."

That positive in the locker room manifested itself from the opening kick of the second half. Just 2:04 into the second half, a corner kick from Theo Kudlo went to Silas Chavez, who passed to Mark Spencer for the goal. Less than a minute later It was Chavez finding the back of the net off an assist from Michael Nachfoerg. Less than three minutes into the second half the Mustangs had jumped to a 3-1 lead.

"I felt like how we were moving the ball we were doing some really good things that if we could get an early goal we would be on track," Rickard said. "We ended up getting two early goals. So I was really happy to do what we needed to do."

"I was really happy for Mark to get on the scoring sheet," he continued. "Obviously moving him from defense to a forward spot is, you know, we want to have some goals and assists. I was really happy for Silas to get on the scoring page as a freshman to build his confidence.

In the 64th minute, Prince Chingancheke took the ball away from a Warrior and found Martino streaking down the left wing. He took an angle to the goal and punched the ball to the right of the goalkeeper for his second goal of the game.

"Definitely early on in this game, (Giorgio) was not having trouble with them," Rickard said. "I felt that he was the most likely guy to break them down because in the middle it's crowded. There are teams that double-team him and try to deny him the ball, but I felt that we could break through with him and he did."

Rickard's prediction of a 5-1 game was looking like it was in jeopardy until Walker Buck broke through the Life Pacific defense and took a shot, which deflected off the goalkeeper right to the feet of Daniel Cota who punched it in from 25 yards out with 2:02 on the clock to bring the prediction to fruition.

"For Daniel to put the exclamation point on it was nice," Rickard said.

Master's will next travel to San Diego Christian on Thursday for a 1:30 p.m. match against the Hawks.