Through the first half the City College men’s soccer team felt like a stuck ketchup bottle, but once the goals started flowing they left the scoresheet covered in red.

Will Demirkol, Bart Muns and Juan Zarate scored over a 12 minute stretch in the second half as the Vaqueros (9-3-3, 3-1-1) notched a 4-1 conference win over the Santa Monica College Corsairs (5-7-3, 1-3-1) Tuesday night at La Playa Stadium.

“In the first half we knew we hadn’t played our best, so as soon as we started playing with more intensity in the second half and they started to cave, and as soon as the first goal went in we knew we had them against the wall,” the sophomore defender Zarate said.

Jake Dunn added his second goal of the season late as City College remained unbeaten at home. The Vaqueros remain in closing distance of the two teams tied for the conference lead, Oxnard College and LA Mission College, with five games remaining in the regular season.

“It was critical that they came back in the last 45 minutes. I said to them ‘this might define your season, whatever happens, so you’ve got to give it your all’,” head coach John Sisterson said.

City College rallied from the 1-0 halftime deficit by establishing possession early in the second half. The increased pressure paid off when freshman forward Demirkol tucked home the rebound of sophomore defender Sam Pinto’s shot for his sixth goal of the season in the 50th minute to level the score.

The Vaqueros took the lead for good eight minutes later when freshman midfielder Dunn played the ball to Muns in the middle of the box. The sophomore forward took advantage of defensive miscommunication by banking a shot off the back of a defender past the Corsairs’ keeper for his team and WSC-North-leading tenth goal.

Zarate completed the dynamic dozen minutes of play for City College by beating his defender to the near post and turning sophomore forward Tanner Stevenson’s corner kick delivery top shelf of the net for his third score.

“I thought they played very well in the second half, were competitive and did what we asked them. I thought we scored some great goals,” Sisterson said.

Freshman midfielder Dunn added the exclamation point tally in the 80th minute, taking a feed from Zarate at the top of the box and lashing home a strike that bulged the top far corner of the net.

Three of the Vaqueros’ remaining games will be at La Playa Stadium, with both Oxnard and LA Mission amongst the visitors.

“We go one game at a time, and we’re excited we have two home games in a row next so we’re looking forward to getting two wins,” Zarate said.

City College hosts Allan Hancock College next on Friday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.