Box Score

Fresno Pacific had five different goal scorers in a 5-0 win over UC Santa Cruz for their seventh straight win and ninth in the last ten matches.

Alvaro Nogales, Bruno Pessoa, Gustavo Silva, Jonathan Venegas and Rodrigo Vianna all scored for the Sunbirds (11-4, 8-3) who were undermanned for the second straight match with at least three starters missing due to injury. Guillermo Talancon notched two assists in the match all of which came in the first half.

"Our starting lineup right away go us started and gave us an early goal," said head coach Jaime Ramirez. "We were able to pick up the second and third goals to get a little bit of breathing room heading into half."

Fresno Pacific scored early, as they have much of the season, to put the Banana Slugs (6-7-2) in an early hole on a goal by Nogales who was assisted by Talancon. Nogales is now tied for the team lead in goals with 12 on the season.

The Sunbirds continued to press against the under manned UC Santa Cruz squad that played just 12 players in the match. The aggressive play paid off once again in the 10th minute when Jorge Dominguez played a ball through to Silva who buried it in the back of the net for the 2-0 lead.

UC Santa Cruz was unable to mount any real offensive threat in the first half despite FPU missing starting center back Ivan Mirkovic who was serving a suspension for accumulation of yellow cards.

In the 33rd minute Vianna found his goal in Talancon's second of the game. The Sunbirds were up by three at the break.

In the second half with the game in hand FPU was able to rest many of their starters and allow other players to get significant time. Venegas and Pessoa both scored their goals to add to the lead for the Sunbirds who ran away with the match.

"We got to rest a lot of our starters in the second half," said Ramirez. "It was good for our starters to get to cheer on their teammates in that half."

Fabian Rangel and Andrew Luis combined for the seventh shoutout of the season for FPU who has now allowed just three goals in their last eight matches. Luis saved the shutout with a beautiful stop in a one-on-one situation that thwarted the Banana Slugs' best shot at a goal.

"We talked at halftime about how important it was for us to get the shutout," said Ramirez. "Andrew came up big on that play and it was good to see him get in some game play and get the clean sheet for us."

The Sunbirds are back in action on Saturday as they travel to Holy Names in a rematch of an 8-0 win FPU had just two weeks ago.