Poughkeepsie, NY—The UC Riverside Men's Soccer Team's offense scored three goals after intermission Friday evening on its way to a 3-0 season-opening road win over the Marist Red Foxes (0-1).

"I'm very happy with how the players responded in the second half tonight," said Head Coach Junior Gonzalez. "Scoring three goals and recording a shutout was an excellent start. Now we need to close out our East Coast trip with a win against Iona on Sunday."

The victory marked the fourth time in the program's 12-year Division I history that the Highlanders have won their season opener. The last time was in 2007 when UC Riverside picked up a 3-2 victory at Central Arkansas. They followed that win up with a 3-2 decision over #21 San Diego State for the team's only 2-0 start to a season.

The other UCR season-opening wins came on September 3, 2004 in a 2-1 non-conference win at Cal State Fullerton, and on August 29, 2003 in a 1-0 victory at St. Mary's.

Neither team found the back of the net in the first 45 minutes of play, but the Highlanders got on the board with 3:37 gone in the second. Otis Earle was taken down in the Red Foxes box, and Jose Diaz converted the subsequent penalty kick giving UC Riverside a 1-0 advantage.

Humberto Santiago made it a 2-0 game with just under 10 minutes to go in the match on a header off of an Ivan Garcia cross. Aaron Long finished out the scoring with 5:07 to go, beating the Marist keeper to the lower left side of the goal.

The Highlanders finish their East Coast trip this Sunday with a 10 am PT start time at Iona.

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