The Vaquero men’s soccer squad survived a barrage of second half shots to take home a 1-0 nonconference win against Chaffey Friday night at La Playa stadium.

Sophomore goaltender Ismael Guzman made five saves in the Vaqueros first shut out of the season. The defense has allowed eight goals in their previous three matches.

“First off, we won and that’s the number one thing,” sophomore midfielder Justin Saul said. “We definitely have things to work on to achieve our goal.”

Chijioke Aranotu headed in the only goal of the game in the 38 minute assisted by an accurate Saul pass from the right end line.

“JJ (Saul) took on a couple of players and made a great cross,“ said Aranotu. “I was coming to the far post and that’s a play we work on in practice, a lot.”

Chaffey (2-2-1) outshot the Vaqueros (2-2) 22-6 and dominated the second half shots 14-2, but the City College defense stood strong.

“That’s soccer, you play hard but with a good spirit,” said head coach John Sisterson. “I noticed that (our players) legs got tired in the second half.”

The Vaqueros look to repeat or do better than last season’s 18-2-4 record that earned it the WSC Championship and third place in the state Final Four.

“The goal is to beat the last score,” Sisterson said. “We want to be better than the Final Four.”

“The goal for our team is to reach 40 points,” Saul said. “Which is a number we believe will win us the conference and also to win the national championship.”

Aranotu said this team’s future success depends on everyone doing their specific job well.

“I hope to help the team win as many games as we can.” Aranotu added. “Being a forward, the most important job is putting the ball in the back of the net.”

When asked which game is the most important this season, Sisterson answered simply, “the next game is the most important, it is always the next game.”

The Vaqueros open their defense of its WSC title at 7 p.m. on Tuesday when it takes on Hancock at Santa Maria High School.