Young's Two Goals Highlight 3-0 Win Over Dominican

Thursday, September 16

San Rafael, CA

2:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Dominican

Joao Vieira

9/16/2010 6:56:43 PM | Men's Soccer

By: Joel Horn

Junior midfielder Cordero Young (Orlando, FL/Central Florida Christian Academy, Tyler Junior College) scored two goals and senior midfielder Joao Vieira (Amparo, Brazil/Barbosa, Marshalltown CC) had one to lead the Grand Canyon University men's soccer team, ranked No. 10 in the current NCAA Division II West Region poll, to a 3-0 victory over Dominican University of California this afternoon in San Rafael, Calif.

It was the Pacific West Conference opener for both teams and the first match for the reigning PacWest champion Antelopes (2-0-1 overall, 1-0-0 PacWest) since they defeated defending Great Northwest Athletic Conference champ Saint Martin's 3-1 on Sept. 6 at the GCU Soccer Field. They will play three more matches over the next six days, all of them in the Bay Area.

The Penguins (0-4-1, 0-1-0), who lost only one senior last year, were looking for their first win of the season.

Vieira gave GCU a 1-0 lead with just under two minutes left in the first half when he slipped a goal into the bottom right corner of the net. Both of Young's goals -- his first as a 'Lope -- came in a span of two minutes in the second half. Sophomore forward Kyle Ciliento (Phoenix, AZ/Pinnacle, Saint Mary's College of California) crossed the ball to Young for the second of his goals.

"It's always difficult to play at Dominican," GCU Head Coach Petar Draksin said. "Their coach, Jonathan Delano, gets them very organized and gets them playing very, very hard. It was a great team effort for us defensively, and we did everything we worked on during the week offensively.

"If I was going to mention four key players who stepped up for us tonight, it would be (senior midfielder/forward) Harvey Martinez (Miami, FL/Coral Gables, Marshalltown CC), Cordero Young, Johnny Vieira and (junior defender) Ryan Baker (Gilbert, AZ/Highland). They played their hearts out.

"I was very pleased with Ryan's performance. He stepped into (junior defender) Frederic Schoelzel's (Gevelsberg, Germany/Gymnasium Hagen, Northwood University) spot at left defender, which is not his normal position, and he did a great job."

Schoelzel suffered a fractured arm in the season opener against Montana State Billings and may miss the remainder of the season.

"It's very important to win your first conference game so you can get on track," Draksin said. "For us, it's always very difficult because everybody gets up to play Grand Canyon."

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