Thursday, August 24, 2006 - Season Opener

Final: Sunbirds 1, Cal State Stanislaus 0

Box score

Turlock - The Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds opened the 2006 season with a 1-0 win over the Cal State Stanislaus Warriors in Turlock this afternoon.

Amaury Nunes scored the only goal of the game at 21:20. Nunes, a junior striker from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, tucked in a pass from Nehemias Blanco on an indirect free kick in the box. A foul was called with a Warriors defending kicked the ball back to goalkeeper Jose Herrera who then played it with his hands.

"I thought we enjoyed the better of the play," said FPU head coach Jaime Ramirez. "But that was not indicated in the score. We were not as sharp as you would expect this early in the season.

The Sunbirds out-shot the Warriors 16-8 and enjoyed 12-2 margin in corner kicks.

FPU goalkeeper Brandon Cave made three saves in gaining the shutout in his first collegiate start.

The Sunbirds will be in Bakersfield on Monday for a match with the Cal State University Roadrunners. The match will be an exhibition as the Roadrunners recently declared their intent to move up to NCAA Div. I status.

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Fresno Pacific University offers undergraduate and graduate programs that stress solid academic preparation and a strong ethical foundation. Each year more than 2,000 traditional and adult students attend classes on the 42-acre main campus in southeast Fresno or centers in Visalia and Bakersfield. The university also reaches 12,000 students across the nation and around the world through professional development studies programs. The only four-year Christian university in the Central Valley, FPU is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and ranked in the top quarter among Western universities master's category by U.S. News & World Report.