ROHNERT PARK, Calif-  Seniors Ross Middlemiss and Eric Lafon scored goals on Sunday afternoon to lead the fourth-ranked Sonoma State men's soccer team to a hard-fought 2-0 win over Western Washington at Seawolf Field in Rohnert Park.  With the win, the Seawolves improve to 5-0-0 on the season.  The Vikings drop to 1-2-0.

The Seawolves are off to their best start since 2002, when the eventual national champions began the sesaon with ten straight wins.

Said Sonoma State head coach Marcus Ziemer, "This was a great game.  We came in prepared and we were very sharp."

The game was exciting from the get-go with each team nearly scoring in the first two minutes of the game.  Despite numerous scoring chances, the teams entered the break scoreless thanks to some solid goalkeeping and excellent defense.

In the second half, the Seawolves continued to pepper the WWU defense with threats.  Fourteen minutes into the second, WWU's Joel Grossman and SSU's Jack Jones collided going for a loose ball.  The referee gave Jones a yellow, but he pulled red on Grossman and left the Vikings a man down for the final thirty-one minutes.

The red to Grossman may have been just the break the Seawolves needed as just six minutes later they were able to break through.  Ross Middlemiss brought the ball up, then laid it off to Andrew Bailey who paused and slid it over to Lafon.  From the left side, Lafon quickly blasted the ball to the right of the Viking keeper to make it 1-0.

SSU picked up an insurance goal in the 82nd minute when Ross Middlemiss was fouled in the box on a scoring opportunity.  Middlemiss took the PK himself and converted to make it 2-0.  It was the seventh goal of the season for the Arcata native.

Ziemer was impressed with the play of his second string, saying "Our depth makes it hard for a team to play 90 minutes with us.  They provided a real spark off the bench today."

The Seawolves had a 15-5 shot advantage (8-1 in the second half).  Western actually held a slight edge in corners (5-3), but they also led in fouls (23-17).

Brook Johnson made two saves to earn his second shutout of the season.

The Seawolves head to Belmont on Friday to take on Notre Dame de Namur before opening up CCAA play next weekend on the road at Cal State Stanislaus on Sunday.

Said Ziemer, "We just need to play better every single game.  We treat every game like its a championship game."

Box Score