The GCC men’s soccer team won its first game of the season at home on Friday, 1-0, against the Chaffey College Panthers.

“One to nothing is beautiful,” said coach Joe Agoston following the win.

For many of the Vaqueros, this is their first season of college-level soccer.

Of the 23 Glendale players, only two, goalkeeper Hakob Boghossian and injured Yuto Hisamura, are returning from last year’s team.

Coming into the match, the Vaqs were on a two game slide, losing their season opener to San Bernardino Valley College 3-0, followed by a crushing defeat to Los Angeles Harbor College 7-1.

Before Friday’s win, the Vaqs seemed more poised and confident than in their previous games. There was no big pregame speech, or any antics. Instead, the player were coolly focused

Several near goals for both sides made for an exciting 20 minutes of solid defense in the first half. But then the Vaqueros got sloppy.

Both teams played a physical match, resulting in several yellow cards and warnings. In the final minutes of the first half, Panthers coach Ben Cooper was warned of being ejected from the game by a referee, after expressing distaste for multiple calls.

At halftime, the score remained 0-0.

“You guys look much better than Tuesday night,” said Agoston, during his halftime speech, referring to the Vaqueros’ 7-1 loss.

The second half began much like the first, with teams trading goal attempts. Glendale’s goalkeeper Boghossian, kept the Vaqs in the game with several impressive saves.

Then with 30 minutes to go in the second half, GCC’s co-captain David Adamyan found the back of the net for the first time this season, giving the Vaqueros a 1-0 lead.

With the clock ticking closer and closer to Glendale’s first win of the season, tension started to build, resulting in an exchange of words, followed by a brief shoving match between opponents.

For most of the second half, Chaffey controlled posession of the ball, however Glendale managed to hold the Panthers scoreless, dishing them their first loss of the season.

“Finally,” co-captain Christian Lopez said with great relief as the team entered the locker room.

“You guys deserve it,” said Agoston, when giving his post game speech. This was the Vaqueros first game of the season where they didn’t surrender a goal.

Agoston chalked the win up to his players displaying team effort, discipline, and staying with the tactics.