ROHNERT PARK -- Cedric Dinane scored less than seven minutes into the contest and Armando Coronel added a huge insurance goal in the 85th minute as the Sonoma State men's soccer team held on for a 2-1 victory over Hawaii Pacific on Tuesday to wrap up its non-conference portion of the 2014 schedule.  The Seawolves will enter CCAA play with an overall record of 5-2-0, while the Sharks fell to 2-3-1 this season.

"That was a tough game," said SSU head coach Marcus Ziemer.  "HPU had some very good players and had us on our heels at times.  (Goalkeeper) Sean Taufer made some clutch saves and our defense played very well in front of him.  I was happy with how we bounce back after the tough loss at Notre Dame de Namur (on Sunday)."

Just 6:49 into the match, the ball was deep in Hawaii Pacific territory and the Sharks defenders failed to clear the ball, kicking it right to Coronel near the right corner of the penalty box.  Coronel then served the ball into Dinane, who headed the ball into the net from 10 yards out for the early 1-0 lead.  Despite holding the one-goal lead in the first half, the Seawolves were outshot 10-5 in the opening period (and eventually 15-12 in the match), but the stellar play of Taufer between the posts kept Hawaii Pacific out of the net until late in the match; he made five stops on the day.

Still 1-0 with under six minutes to play in regulation, Chris Pihl took possession of the ball near the left sideline at midfield and kicked it up to Brenton Frame, who began to dribble upfield with two defenders in front of him.  He saw Coronel streaking in from the right side and crossed it over.  Coronel, with just the goalkeeper between him and the net, fired a one-timer from 20 yards out right at HPU netminder Eduardo Palacios, but Palacios couldn't come up with the save and the ball found its home in the back of the net for what proved to be a crucial insurance goal.

Just three minutes later, at 87:44, the Sharks put one up on the scoreboard when Christopher Galang served a pass into the box from the left side before Mario Garcia came in to head the ball past Taufer, cutting the Seawolf lead in half at 2-1.  However, before HPU could score the equalizer, time would expire and SSU came away with the win.

"Our second goal was clutch, but we didn't do a great job of closing the game after we scored and it definitely got more interesting than it had to be," Ziemer explained.  "We played a lot of guys today.  We are really deep and it helps to be able to bring quality off of the bench."

"We finished our non-conference schedule at 5-2, which is pretty good considering how tough it was," said Ziemer.  "We will recover tomorrow and then get ready for the CCAA opener at home against Cal State Monterey Bay on Friday at 4:00 pm."