Toros Dominate Cal State East Bay, 4-1, on Senior Day

The CSUDH men's soccer seniors, with the coaching staff

Box Score

CARSON -- Making sure this year's seniors went out with a bang on "Senior Day," the Cal State Dominguez Hills men's soccer team took a decisive 4-1 win over visiting Cal State East Bay on a sunny and hot Sunday morning, the fourth-consecutive win for the defending national champions.

The Toros dominated play from the first kick, taking 19 shots compared to CSUEB's 1 in the first half. One of the eight seniors behind honored in a pre-game ceremony, Brian Alvarez opened the scoring in the 22nd minute after taking a cross from Andrew Marinez, and beating Pioneer keeper Cesar Villa for the opening score.

CSUDH doubled up right before the break as Scott Locken collected a Greg Piechota cross and blasted his score to the right post.

The Pioneers, in their first year as full-fledged CCAA members, cut the lead in half as Manny Cardenas was the recipient of consecutive crosses and side-footed the visitors' lone shot of the period past Mitch Weeks, who was seeing his first action in 2009.

Nursing a 2-1 lead, the Toros broke the game open in the final 15 minutes as Alvarez connected for his second goal after a perfect give-and-go with Scott Mariano, before Andre Turoldo tallied the final score after a feed from Alex Munoz to beat reserve CSUEB keeper Billy Morales, who also entered after the break.

The defending national champions enjoyed a whopping 27-2 edge in shots, and 12-2 advantage in corner kicks as the Pioneer keeper duo accounted for 8 saves in the match, while the Toro defense kept the Pioneer offense from taking a shot on goal.

Prior to the contest, the Toros honored eight seniors playing in their final regular season home doubleheader in Kevin Gallaugher, Mariano, Hiram Rangel, Marinez, Marco Pulido, Alvarez, John Sherman and Kent Hayashi, with the three four-year seniors in Mariano, Marinez and Rangel having an NCAA Title and two CCAA Titles under their belts, with the 2009 CCAA and NCAA postseasons still on the horizon.

CSUDH, now 10-5-1, 9-4-1 CCAA, battle GNAC foes Western Washington and Seattle Pacific later this week, before concluding the CCAA regular season on the road, looking to cement its spot in the upcoming CCAA tournament.

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