PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The Yavapai College men's soccer team needed a win on Tuesday night at Ken Lindley Field and that's just what it got as the Roughriders defeated the Glendale Community College Gauchos 3-1 to move to 6-3 overall and 5-2 in conference games. 

"What a fantastic win for the boys tonight," Head Coach Chris Houser said after the game. "It's always tough coming off a Saturday game, however, stepping up and taking care of business tonight was huge for this team." 

Both Roughrider goals in the first half would fall into the category of highlight-reel plays. 

The first one, 15 minutes into the match, started with a free kick off the foot of freshman defender Erick Quirarte. From there, freshman forward Luis Medina beat his defender to the box and headed the ball to fellow freshman forward Jorge Quintero who went short side on the Gaucho keeper to give YC a 1-0 advantage. 

The score was Quintero's team-leading eighth goal of the season while Medina tallied his third assist and Quirarte collected his first. 

With 18 minutes left in the half, YC pulled off its second beautiful score of the game. This time, sophomore midfielder Austin Pearcy tracked a ball to the corner of YC's offensive zone and crossed it to the front of the net. 

The ball would eventually touch the back of the Glendale net before it found the ground as Quintero headed the ball over to Medina who headed it as well into the goal to give the Roughriders a 2-0 lead. 

The goal was Medina's third while Quintero took home his third assist and Pearcy logged his second. 

After the half, the next highlight-reel Roughrider play came from sophomore goalkeeper Bishop Rhoads who faced a penalty kick with just over 33 minutes left to play in the contest with Glendale looking to cut the Roughrider lead in half. 

The whistle blew and the Glendale penalty shot headed for the back of the net to Rhoads' left, however, Rhoads full-extension dove to his left, stopped the shot, preserved the two-goal lead and sent the Roughriders and their crowd into a frenzy. 

"I want to give a big shoutout to Bishop Rhoads," said Houser when asked about his keeper. "He came up big for us and if there was a player of the match, it would have definitely been him."

The momentum from the penalty-kick save carried over to the Roughrider scoresheet as well as 10 minutes later, sophomore forward Arthur Coscas caught the Glendale defense sleeping, pressured a defender into a bad pass, stole the ball from the GCC keeper and deposited it into a wide open net for a 3-0 YC lead and his third goal of the season. 

With just over 20 minutes left in the match, YC was able to hold Glendale to one goal on the night and walked away with the 3-1 victory. 

Rhoads finished with nine saves and took home his third victory of the season. 

Up Next
YC is back on the soccer field on Tuesday, October 3, at home where they will host the Arizona Western College Matadors with gametime set for 6 p.m.