HOUSTON- HBU soccer got three goals past UT Rio Grande Valley for a 3-1 victory in a Western Athletic Conference matchup at Sorrels Field Sunday afternoon.

"It was a great win today," head coach Steve Jones said. "After a tough loss on Friday, a long day of travel on Saturday and a hot afternoon game against a team that hadn't played since last Sunday, we had some obstacles to overcome. We fought hard defensively all over the field today. I felt we did a good job of winning important defensive battles, that allowed us to transition quickly into attacking at their back line. We also did a good job of finishing several of our good chances. It was an important win for us today, it was great to see the boys respond to the challenge."
 
In the fast-paced matchup, each team tallied six shots in the first half with two on goal. One of the Huskies (4-8-1, 2-4-0 WAC) shots on goal was from sophomore defender Devon Grant's head resulting in a 1-0 lead over UTRGV (3-7-2, 1-3-1 WAC) in the 36^th minute. Assisting the goal was the combination of sophomore midfielder Darrell Johnson and sophomore forward Lucas de Paula, who crossed the ball in the box from the right side of the field to find Grant.
 
In the second half, the Huskies were far from being done scoring, as Johnson fed the ball to freshman forward Brandon Garland who then passed the ball to freshman forward Malik Key. He found the opportunity to strike the ball from the right side of the field and used the woodwork to his advantage as the ball hit the left post and bounced in to add to their lead in the 64^th minute. Four minutes later, Johnson tallied his third assist of the afternoon, as he placed a through ball to freshman forward Justin Martin who was able to capitalize on as he found side netting to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.

In the 71^st minute, UTRGV was able to break the shutout as Ilias Kosmidis used his head to pass to Isidro Martinez who was able to take a touch and get it past sophomore goalkeeper Chance Pope.
 
HBU had de Paula, junior midfielder Marc-Anthone, Grant, Martin, and Key each with one shot on goal. Pope stood between the pipes for the Huskies as made four saves and one goal against.
 
Martinez led UTRGV with three shots on goal and had Kosmidis who had the other two for the team's total of five. Esa Aalto played all 90 minutes and had two saves for the afternoon while he had three goals against.
 
The Huskies will travel to Orem, Utah, on Friday for the Western Athletic Conference matchup against Utah Valley at 8 p.m. CDT and then will return home to Sorrels Field to take on UNLV on Sunday at 7 p.m.