Douglas Dispatch

Bulldog midfielder Tony Lopez dribbles the ball past a Palo Verde defender in the second half of Douglas’ season opener Monday at Douglas High School. The Bulldogs won the game 5-1 and will face Buena today in the second round.

The Douglas Bulldog soccer team looked as impressive as expected thumping the Palo Verde Titans 5-1 in the season opener Monday in the first round of the Brandon Bean Invitational which was played at Douglas High School.

The Bulldogs, 1-0, take to the road today to face Buena in second round action.

It took the Bulldogs less than four minutes to score the first goal of the season as Francisco Cruz scored off a Ramon Acosta assist giving Douglas a quick 1-0 lead.

Seven minutes later the Bulldogs scored again when Tony Lopez booted the ball into the net for an unassisted goal giving Douglas a 2-0 lead.

With just under 10 minutes left in the half Palo Verde scored cutting the Dogs lead to 2-1 at the half.

Bulldog soccer coach Ken Cormier said after the match his team may have been a little too pumped up to play at the start.

 “Early on the players showed a lot of energy and I think maybe it was too much,” he said. “We looked awfully tired at times but in the second half we were able to get back into the flow of the game.”

Things settled down the second half and Alphonso Romero, Acosta and Lopez each had second half goals giving Douglas its 5-1 cushion.

The Bulldogs out shot the Titans 29-13. Bulldog goalie Meoqui Skinner had six saves and Tony Valenzuela one.

Coach Cormier said afterwards scoring five goals the first match of the season against a quality opponent like Palo Verde is a good way to start the year.

“We’re very pleased,” he said. “However we know we’re capable of playing better. … We can’t expect to play this way … and expect to beat Buena.”

The coach suited up 20 players for the match and all 20 got to play quality minutes.

“I saw a lot of intensity out there tonight which I liked,” he added. “We subbed freely and I saw some good things from several of the kids who came off the bench for us.”

The coach said there are still a lot of things to work on but it was a nice opening night with a good sized crowd and some good action from both the Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs.

“It was a great opening night,” he said. “We’re really pleased.”