PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- On a beautiful fall night at Ken Lindley Field, the Yavapai College men's soccer team took care of business, defeating the Gauchos of Glendale Community College 3-1 to move its overall record to 7-6-1 and ACCAC record to 3-3-1. 

"Tonight was a good win versus a difficult opponent in a critical conference game," Head Coach Andre Luciano said. "I thought the energy in the second half was indicative of what our last four games have been. Tonight, we capitalized on the opportunities."

After a couple of Roughrider opportunities to start the match, the Gauchos struck first 16 minutes into the match. Moving forward on a rush in which he was outnumbered, a Glendale forward made a couple of moves on a defender and fired the ball to the top-left of the goal out of the reach of Yavapai's goalkeeper. 

About 10 minutes after the Gaucho score, the Roughriders drew even on freshman midfielder Michal Mojzis's sixth score of the season. Freshman forward Jesse Maldonado moved the ball into the Yavapai offensive zone and distributed the ball to sophomore forward Christopher Cornn. 

Cornn then sent a cross pass to Mojzis whose header attempt was nullified by a defender trying to head the ball out of trouble. After the ball fell harmlessly to the floor, Mojzis sized it up perfectly and sent it to the top-right corner of the net. 

After the tying score, the Roughriders turned up the heat and nearly scored before halftime, however, both teams went into the break with one goal apiece. 

After halftime, the Roughriders were seemingly playing on a tilted field as they dominated time of possession while generating a plethora of scoring opportunities. 

Their efforts paid off with 35 minutes to go in the match as Mojzis found freshman forward Mael Lopes streaking down the side of the field and hit him perfectly in stride with a nice pass. Lopes corralled the ball perfectly, flashed past a couple of defenders and fired it past the approaching Gaucho goalkeeper for a 2-1 Yavapai lead. 

Just three minutes later, the Roughriders took a two-goal lead on another goal from Lopes who pushed his season total to four on the night. This time, sophomore forward Dauda Woodruff pushed the ball down the field and passed it to Maldonado who put the brakes on and found Lopes with a nice cross pass.

All Lopes had to do after the pass was shoot it past the frozen Glendale goalkeeper, which he accomplished with ease for a 3-1 lead. 

Lopes nearly netted a hat trick shortly after the pair of goals, however, the Roughriders finished the game with three goals. 

While the offense dominated in the second half, the defense of Yavapai also shut down any and all opportunities that Glendale had with its superior speed, size and athleticism. 

Freshman midfielder Ben Rivera, freshman defender Carlos Uriarte, sophomore defender Jakob Larson and freshman forward Ozzie Osborn all stymied Gaucho forwards all night long. 

In goal, sophomore goalkeeper Josue Ruiz took home the victory. 

Up Next
The Roughriders are back in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Phoenix, Arizona, where they will take on the Phoenix College Bears.