SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Santa Barbara City College Men’s Soccer team (6-2-4, 1-0-1) cruised to a 3-0 victory over previously undefeated Moorpark (7-1-4, 1-1) on Tuesday night thanks to three second-half goals—including a brace from Jose Ramirez.

“The guys showed up tonight,” Head Coach Alex Zermeno said. “They knew how important this game was. We needed this to just get the ball rolling in terms of our confidence.”

Neither team mustered a shot in the opening 20 minutes as each team got a feel for the match. Some no-nonsense defending played into the stalemate, too.

The breakthrough nearly came when Luis Barron won the ball back deep in the Vaqueros’ half, carried it forward for a few seconds, and played an amazing trivela pass through to Diego Gonzalez down the left flank.

Gonzalez, himself, was strong to ward off the Moorpark defender, but the duel stymied his momentum. Nonetheless, the Moorpark goalie made a good one-on-one save to prevent an opening goal.

Moorpark came closest on a free kick from about 30 yards out late in the half. SBCC goalie Eric Cruz tipped the left-footed free kick from Moorpark’s Nano Gonzalez off the post. Moorpark also had a late corner, but the score was 0-0 into the break.

Shortly after halftime, the Vaqueros got their goal. Aidan DePaco confidently dribbled past his man on the left side of the box towards the byline. He cut it back for Ramirez, who basically couldn’t miss from six yards out.

Five minutes later, in the 55th minute, it was Ramirez again. Gonzalez was the first to get to a loose ball near the right corner flag and whipped in a hopeful cross. Ramirez came running right down the middle of the box—unmarked—to meet it, heading in from roughly the penalty spot. The Vaqueros ran to the corner flag to celebrate, up 2-0.

From there, despite the lead, it was the Vaqueros who had the better of the chances. DePaco nearly had a second great assist when he played through Brandon Montalvo, whose powerful shot was met with an equally strong save. Gonzalez almost scored, too, when his run ended with a shot deflected just enough to miss wide.

But they sealed the game with their third goal in the 84th minute. Two substitutes linked up; Chris Lopez sent Tiki Hummel one-on-one with the goalie, and the latter toed it past him into the side netting.

It is a really encouraging result for the Vaqueros, who handed Moorpark their first loss and shut them out for only the second time this year.

“This win shows the guys they can trust themselves and believe in the group. Our four pillars are faith, family, focus, and finish, and they did that—so we’re proud of them for doing that,” Zermeno said.

The Vaqueros have an even tougher test next time out, though. On Friday, Santa Barbara travels to No. 15 LA Mission (6-2-3, 2-0) with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.

“It could be a conference-deciding match,” Zermeno previewed. “I think we’re two of the best teams in the conference.”

Fans not making the trip south can follow Friday’s marquee match via live stats on govaqs.com.