TACOMA TOPS TURLOCK 12-2

Kent, WA. – The Tacoma Stars opened their 2018-19 Major Arena Soccer League season with a bang, knocking off the Turlock Express 12-2 at the accesso ShoWare Center in front of 3,437. For the match, the Stars out-shot Turlock 27-4 and were led by Nick Perera’s three goals.

Philip Lund opened the scoring with two goals in less than two minutes in the first quarter before James Riley picked up his first MASL goal with 3:56 left in the first. The Stars notched four more goals in the second quarter to lead the Express 7-0 at the half. Adam West and Chase Hanson scored less than a minute apart and then Perera nailed home his first with 6:40 left in the opening half. Tacoma got its seventh off the foot of Joey Gjertsen with six seconds remaining.

The second half started with two more Stars markers. The first was from Jamael Cox and then Matt Clare’s first as a Tacoma Star with 7:59 left in the third quarter. Turlock got on the board when Ernesto Luna scored his first with the Express less than a minute after Clare’s goal.

Perera punched in his second of the night to opening scoring in the fourth with 11:30 left to play. Just 16 seconds later, Luna struk again for Turlock to make the score 10-2 with 11:14 to go. Perera completed his hat trick at the 9:13 mark and Vince McCluskey closed out scoring with 5:07 remaining in the game.