Two tournaments, two championships. The season could not have gotten off to a better start for the UNLV men’s soccer team as the Rebels (4-0) were named Johann Memorial Classic Co-Champions after wins over IPFW and Howard this weekend. UNLV, who is now unbeaten through four games for the first time since 1985, beat both the Mastodons and the Bison by a score of 4-0. The Rebels share the honor of JMC Champions with conference rival Cal-State Bakersfield, who also went 2-0 in the tournament. “We came out and played well today,” said head coach Rich Ryerson. The theme for this past weekend’s tournament was to not be complacent. After starting the season with two straight victories, the Rebels laden with eight seniors and nine juniors would not lose focus of the tasks at hand. “The experience that we’ve had over the last three years is preparing them to have a quality fourth year,” Ryerson said. “They’ve set a new standard for the younger guys.” The standard was on full display against IPFW and Howard. The utter domination of each opponent has the Rebels’ hype buzzing. On Friday, UNLV shutout a Mastodons team that had dominated their opponents. In two games, IPFW had outscored its counterpart 8-2, scoring at will. The Rebels scored early, and kept pressure on the Mastodons for nearly the entire first half. Corey Ackley opened up the scoring, netting a goal in the sixth minute. Just before halftime, Julian Portugal hit a cross through the front of the goal where Andy Rodriguez was able to head in the ball to increase the lead to 2-0. In the 58th minute, freshman Danny Musovski assisted on yet another Salvador Bernal goal, to give the captain his fourth goal of the season and the Rebels a 3-0 lead. Two minutes later, Rodriguez scored his second goal of the game to ice the 4-0 victory. “We want to set a standard at Peter Johann Memorial where we play with confidence, we play fast, we play hard and we play to win,” Ryerson said. That standard was again put on for the audiences attention when UNLV played its second game of the classic against Howard. The Bison, who came into the tournament winless, kept their unblemished win column. The Rebels didn’t dominate from the start like they did against IPFW. Instead, it was the defensive prowess of the UNLV backline that held Howard to only one shot for the entire 90-minute match. The Rebels finished with a 24-1 edge on shots. It was none other than Bernal who got the scoring started for UNLV. His Western Athletic Conference-leading fifth goal in the 47th minute put the Rebels up 1-0 on the assist from Portugal. Sebatian Hernandez’s first goal of the year in the 53rd minute increased the lead to 2-0. Musovski would’ve scored his first goal of the year if not for a Bison defenseman’s own goal. Musovski came down the right side before hitting a shot across the net. The attempt would’ve been wide, but the Howard defender, who intended to clear the shot, kicked it into the Bison net for an own goal in the 82nd minute. Three minutes later, junior Julien Dragomir scored his first career goal which sealed the 4-0 victory for the unbeaten Rebels. UNLV goalkeeper Ryan Harding did not need to make any saves in the match enroute to his second shutout of the season and sixth of his career. Harding was one of four Rebels to be named to the All-Tournament team, along with Bernal, Rodriguez and Defensive and Overall tournament MVP Kyle Mellies. “I think our confidence level is pretty high,” Harding said. “There’s a lot of guys on here that want to prove something and, frankly, we just want to win.
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