Box Score SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The Fort Lewis College men's soccer team started off the 2019 season in fine fashion on Friday, earning a 2-0 neutral site win over California State-East Bay out in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"We're very happy to get the win, thrilled for the shutout and look to build off a lot of positives moving forward," said Keane Hamilton, FLC men's soccer assistant coach.

Fort Lewis (1-0-0 overall) dominated the action as it finished with a staggering 25-9 overall shot advantage, including 16 in the second half.

The Skyhawks got the scoring started I the 25^th-minute when senior defenseman Ty Lang joined the rush, took a feed from fellow senior defenseman Marshall Metzger, and maneuvered his way past two defenders before burying his first goal of the season.

It was a fantastic start for Lang, who entered 2019 as a two-time, First-Team All-RMAC selection and coming off a junior season that saw him score a career-high four goals.

"We've really been looking to be aggressive and attack with our outside backs. There was a lot of space to run and Ty made a great run," Hamilton said.

Despite their overwhelming advantage in shots, the Skyhawks were held off the scoreboard again until the 87^th-minute when redshirt junior Hakeem Rabiu provided the all-important insurance goal to seal the 2-0 victory.

Rabiu finished with the second most shots for Fort Lewis a season ago (42) and picked up right where he tied for the team lead in shot attempts with four.

"We were definitely excited for Hakeem to get on the scoresheet," Hamilton said. "He works incredibly hard to get himself in great positions. He had a great summer, put in a lot of work, so for him to get rewarded was nice to see. Even better, it put the game away and let us relax a little bit after that."

Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Peter Byrne, playing in his first game in over a year since missing the 2018 due to inury, earned his first victory back between the posts since Oct. 31, 2017 when he and the Skyhawks shut out Regis University.

Byrne didn't appear to miss a beat as he stopped all three shots on goal he faced en route to his sixth career shutout.

"Peter was great (Friday) and he does a nice job organizing the team in front of him and doing things that don't always show up on the stat sheet," Hamilton said.

The Skyhawks will look to build off of Friday's victory when they resume their two-game trip in Salt Lake with an 11 a.m. matchup on Sunday against Hawaii Pacific University.

"We think they're a pretty well-organized, hard-working team," Hamilton said. "We're hoping to rebound quickly and iron out a few of the kinks we're still working on like finishing more of our chances. We had the 25 shots (Friday). And with stats like that, we'd like to see some more goals go in and play a little more comfortable."