The Moorpark College men’s soccer team began the season with a 3-1 victory against Chaffey College, even while playing one man down in the second half on Wednesday.

At the close of the first half, Fernando Zandarin ripped the ball to the back of the net, scoring the first goal of the season as well as giving the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

Head Coach Sean Roche was pleased with his team’s performance.

“I feel very positive about the win,” he said. “I am perturbed about the youthful exuberance at times. But I thought that even one man short, even after they scored,  it never really looked like the other team would win.”

The match became a challenge for Moorpark when a red card was charged to midfielder Augustin Cazarez at the start of the second half. Although Moorpark was down a player, the team continued to dominate. 15 minutes after Cazarez’s ejection, Gerardo Espinosa lightened things up with a head-on strike to score the second goal of the game.

Chaffey found their opportunity and managed to get past Moorpark’s defense with a header to the near post from a corner kick.

As the game came to a close, Moorpark continued to put pressure on the Panthers. An attempt was made by Jose Garcia with an astonishing cross pass, but no finish. Josh Hibbert was set up for a volley head-on against the keeper and shot the final goal of the game 42 minutes into the second half.

Despite the victory, there were two yellow cards and three red cards issued over the course of the game. The two additional red cards were given during the final minutes of the game; one to a player from Chaffey and the other to Hibbert.

“I think we played well for our first game,” said Captain Luis Gutierrez.

Roche hopes, along with many others, to win the conference. Moorpark is set to play Thursday against Santiago Canyon at 3 p.m.