By Rob Goodrow
September 7, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) On a warm Thorrington Field Saturday, the Westmont men's soccer team shutout the Antelope Valley Pioneers, 3-0, for their fifth win a row and a historical start to their young season.
 
Both teams entered Saturday's game without a loss on their respective records, a detail not lost on Warrior head coach, Dave Wolf.
 
"Going in we knew it was going to take some quality play to win this game. We had a tough time with them last year and they are a very good opponent. They've beaten and tied two GSAC (Golden State Athletic Conference) teams already this year - I'm glad we were able to produce enough moments to get the result."
 
Westmont was on the offensive from the start, outshooting the Pioneers 12-1 in the first half. Despite the lopsided advantage on the attack, it took the Warriors until the forty-first minute to score. Samuel Tuscano left-kicked it into the goal from 30-yards out to give Westmont the edge.
 
"We've been really fortunate to rotate a lot - play a lot of guys. Having Sam back in the mix after being out of Monday's game - he took advantage of his opportunity today."
 
Up 1-0, the second half scoring by the Warriors featured a penalty kick goal from Francisco "Panchito" Castro, his third of the season, and a nifty middle dribble and score inside the 18 by Lucky Puengrod.
 
"The more important number to me in today's score is the 'zero' just because I know as we get into the deeper phases of the season that number becomes the important one," said Wolf. "We've been fortunate to get goals and it's nice to be scoring at the clip that we are, but not every game goes that way. Sometimes, the well runs dry and you have to be able to win a 1-0 game in a tough environment. I like the fact that we've pitched a few shutouts."
 
Wolf was complimentary of his backline and also praised an unlikely group for their contribution to the Warriors' third consecutive shutout.
 
"I thought Zach (Godeck) made a lot of good decisions today about when to pass short, pass long, or when to clear it – he got all of that right today." Continued Wolf, "Then we got some good defending from our attacking group. Jona Romero and Sean Nakaoka have just been on such good form this year and Pancho's work-rate defensively today was awesome. We know he's a threat to score, but I was even more impressed with the work he did in getting back, the number of plays he broke up and disrupted.
 
"When you get that kind of chase-back out of your attacking players that really means something to your defending players. Attackers can sometimes be indifferent to what goes on back there, but they did a good job of helping out on the defensive side."
 
Saturday's win was also a milestone for the Warriors and Coach Wolf as they became the first Westmont men's soccer team since 1999 to begin the season with a 5-0 record.
 
"It is significant. It is a good start. But, it's not about returning to yesteryear, it's about trying to make this team the best team we can make it – that's all it's about," said Wolf. "The focal point will be getting ready for next weekend."
 
After opening up the 2019 season with five straight home games, Westmont now hits the road on a schedule of contests that will not return them to Thorrington Field until the second week of October.
 
"We've been good at home out of the gate, I'm not going to diminish it or dismiss it, but if you want to be really good you have to go get it done on the road," explained Wolf, putting the early success in perspective. "We go to Chicago to play the #19 ranked team (Olivet Nazarene) in the nation at their field, we go to Cal Poly, we open up GSAC with a tough Northern California swing – so we go four in a row on the road. I'll get excited when we get similar results out there."
 
Westmont men's soccer plays next Saturday, September 14 in Bourbonnais, Ill. against #19 Olivet Nazarene (1-1-1), kick-off is 7:00 p.m. CDT, 5:00 p.m. PDT.