RIVERSIDE, Calif. - UC Riverside concluded its longest home stand of the season on Sunday evening at UC Riverside Soccer Stadium with a 3-1 win over San Francisco.
Sunday gave UCR five non-conference wins for the second consecutive season. Still with one non-conference game on the table, UCR has already exceeded its 2019 non-conference goals total of 12 thanks now to three goals in back-to-back games.
"We have a locker room full of guys that are embracing challenges and tonight they stepped up in a major way," head coach Tim Cupello said. "It's still early in the year and we know we have work to do still. I'm excited to see where this team will go as we continue to stay humble and focused on the task at hand."
Roberto Garcia-Vargas scored his first two goals of the year early on, with both coming in the game's first 11 minutes. Garcia-Vargas first found the back of the net in the fifth minute on an assist from Issa Badawiya, then followed it up with his second score eight minutes later from Jonick Pineda.
Garcia-Vargas' brace was UCR's second of the year, and both have come in an eight-minute span.
Sunday's opening goal made it two straight games for UCR with a goal in the first five minutes, but Badawiya's assist ensured a goal or assist for the Riverside native in every game he's appeared in this season.
Brendan Clark added three shots on the night with two coming on frame, and has now logged seven attempts in UCR's last two games. Freymar Omarsson's shot off a corner in the 69th minute was the Highlanders' 10th of the game, continuing UC Riverside's run of double digit shots in every game this season.
Aaron Fraire made his first start in goal for UCR on Sunday. The Dalton State transfer made three saves in his first 45 minutes in blue and gold before Carlos Gonzalez returned to goal in the second half to make five saves. Gonzalez stopped a penalty in the 83rd minute to keep UCR's lead intact.
Five minutes later, Adrian Meade-Tatum shut the door on the Highlanders' penultimate non-conference matchup with a top-shelf goal for the 3-1 lead.
After their longest home stand of the season, the Highlanders will travel to UCLA for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, September 25 before heading to UC Irvine to start Big West play. Live stats and a live stream from Westwood will be available on uclabruins.com.
