Mountaineers Blossom in Win vs Garden City

The Eastern Oklahoma State College men's soccer team shook off a poor performance against PJC and bounced back to claim their first victory of the season with a 3-0 defeat of Garden City CC on Sunday afternoon in Wilburton.

The Mountaineers started quickly once again as Jose Maria Ruarte threaded the needle at the top of the box to find Brandon Molina who was brought down by a late sliding challenge. Ruarte then converted the ensuing PK to give Eastern the 1-0 lead. Shortly before the half ended, Alpha Diallo picked off a Garden City player and combined with Ruarte who beat the keeper with a clever move and blasted the ball into the roof of the net to give Eastern a 2-0 advantage going into the break and never looked back.  

The Mountaineers improved to 1-1, 0-0 in the Region II Conference.

PLAY BY PLAY

- Eastern went ahead for good 5 minutes in.

- Freshmen goalkeeper Carlos Roberto Dias Neto went the distance to pick up the first shutout of the season for the Mountaineers.

- Sophomore Brandon Molina put the game away late with a breakaway chip over the keeper to make the final score 3-0.

Coach Jon Evan commented:

"We came out with great energy, attitude and effort.  Our performance was far from flawless and we know that. We discussed how we can be better in a variety of ways from back to front.  This was a much-needed win.  We wanted to get the taste of that defeat and poor performance at PJC out of our mouths and this will help.  It's early in our season, but, hopefully, we learned that even when we are not at our best technically or tactically, a dominant, physical effort can overcome a lot of mistakes," Evan said. "Garden City is a well-balanced team and they've had some good results against common opponents so we'll take this one and move on. We have a very talented Cowley team coming in here next and we will need to be at our best next Sunday."

GAME NOTES
- The Mountaineers took 7 shots and put 6 on frame.
- Neto had 4 saves in the contest.

Eastern continues its homestand on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 3:00 p.m. when they take on #16 Nationally Ranked Cowley CC.