TURLOCK — Sean Bender scored twice in the second half to turn a tight match into a rout as the Stanislaus State men's soccer team finally earned its first victory of the season in a 3-0 match Sunday afternoon at Warrior Stadium.

Willie Gomez scored early and Bender added two spectacular goals within four minutes in the second half to put the Warriors in the win column as they improved to 1-5-3 on the season. UC Santa Cruz is now 2-7-1.

The victory, and the shut-out, will help the Warriors' confidence as they resume conference play on the road next week at Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State San Bernardino.

"(The win feels) amazing for me and the guys, it's always nice to finally get the win. Hopefully, it gets us out of the funk and back on track," Bender said.

Gomez' gave the Warriors an early 1-0 lead, in the 10th minute, as the the Warriors were given an in-direct free kick in the box about 8 yards out. Rafael Chavez tabbed the restart to Gomez, who shot it through the legs of a wall of UCSC defenders and under a diving goalkeeper Andrew Pimentel. 

Then, the Warriors dominated the second half as they controlled possessions and out-shot UCSC, 10-2, before a 17-9 final count.

Bender scored his first goal, in the 70th minute, after collecting a long clearing pass from Matthew Waldron way back at the top of the box. Bender dribbled and beat a defender to his left and blasted it 20 yards out for the goal. His second goal had the same finish, but this time he stole a pass-back from a Banana Slug midfielder for the goal at 73:22.

Stan State goalkeeper Tomas Zajfert earned four saves on the clean sheet.