HILO, Hawai'i – Aidan Santos headed in his first collegiate goal for the game-winning score in the 22nd minute as the Hawai'i Hilo Men's Soccer team barged through San Francisco State, 1-0, Sunday afternoon in the Vulcans' home-opening match at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
In the 20th minute, Colby Lee nearly got the Vulcans on the scoreboard by sending a 25-yard free-kick laser beam headed for the top-left corner, but the SFSU keeper made a leaping block to make the save.
Just a few hot minutes later, Lee sent in a 30-yard cross from the far left side that found its way between two defenders and off Santos' head to slip past the keeper for the score.
"We made eye contact and luckily I jumped up and got to the header and it went in," Santos said of his first collegiate score.
SFSU had perhaps its best shot at a score in the 31st minute on Julio Gonzalez Ponce's 27-yarder that ricocheted off the right post.
Hawai'i Hilo goalkeeper Christian Souza was credited with four saves in the second shutout of his career.
"We wanted to focus on our defense and we wanted to do well. For the past few weeks we've been drilling our press, drilling our defense and it paid off today. We got a clean sheet," Santos said.
The result was not only the first victory on the season, but also the first for Diego Marroquin as Hawai'i Hilo head coach.
"It's nice to get the result after four weeks of training and coming together as a group to implement certain ideas. It's really nice getting to see it on the pitch in a game situation," Marroquin said. "Especially off last week's result where we struggled in the defending phase of the game. I thought today we took care of it and it was a quality performance from everybody involved."
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Hawai'i Hilo improved to 1-1-0 while San Francisco State moved to a 1-2-0 record.
The Vulcans will be on their way to Southern California for matchups against CSU San Marcos (Sept. 16) and CSU Dominguez Hills (Sept. 18). The next home game will be Thursday, Sept. 21, against Chaminade at 12:30 p.m. in a non-conference tilt.
