Box Score

A pair of goals by senior Gustavo Silva sparked the Sunbirds to a dominating 4-0 win over Dominican University of California. FPU scored three second-half goals and held DUC to just six total shots in the half.
 
The Sunbirds scored in the first 10 minutes for the second consecutive match when junior Renato Bustamante played a ball through the middle to find the feet of Silva who slotted the shot past keeper Patrick Rabbitt for the 1-0 lead in the fifth minute.
 
After a dominant first 10 minutes, the Penguin defense was invigorated and used relentless pressure to keep the Sunbirds at bay. FPU had one chance in the 39th minute to add to their lead when Thiago Novis took a crack at goal, but Rabbitt was able to corral the shot and keep the score at 1-0 heading into the half.

"The early goal was deceiving," said Ramirez. "You tend to sit on it somtimes and you haven't really gotten into the flow of the game until the 15th or 20th minute. I think we got a little complacent and that hurt us a little bit."
 
In the second half the floodgates opened up for the Sunbirds. A dominant, possession oriented attack spurred FPU forward and created chance after chance for an offense that had yet to have a huge breakout game.
 
In the 50th minute Silva struck again for his second goal of the night on another perfectly played through ball up the middle, this time by Alex Hernandez. Alvaro Nogales, who struggled to find the right touch on shots for much of the night, finally got his goal off of a cross by senior Chris Young in the 76th minute. Two minutes later Elijah Gallegos found the back of the net for the first time as a Sunbird.
 
A pair of red cards were issued to Dominican players and forced the Penguins to play two men down from the 74th minute on. With a shorthanded side, Dominican was unable to establish any consistency in an attack. Keeper Fabian Rangel stopped all three shots on goal in his second consecutive shutout effort. Rangel has allowed just .71 goals per game and stopped 84-percent of shots he has faced.

"The guys are feeling good, especially after the shutout," said Ramirez. "We have played some very good teams, but there are a lot of good teams yet to play."
 
Fresno Pacific will take a break from PacWest play on Wednesday when they host UC Santa Cruz on Wednesday. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at Ramirez Field.