Freshman midfielder Eduin Munaguia shined for the Hornet offense scoring three goals. Freshman forward Brian Pacheco added another, but it wasn’t enough for the Hornets who couldn’t find the final goal in a back and forth game.

The Hornets best chance to level the game came in the last five minutes when Munaguia saw his header hit the crossbar.

After letting up an early goal the Hornets responded with two of their own. Both goals came from Munaguia. The first came when he picked up a loose ball in the 18 yard box, weaved through two defenders and pushed it past the goalie for the finish. The second came when Munaguia headed home across from Pacheco.

“I was surprised by the offense. They came out and scored 4 on a team that beat the defending state champs last week,” Coach Alex Perez said. “As a coach, it’s hard to praise the offense when we lost because we gave up five.”

After the early fireworks, the game settled down until the visiting Roadrunners found the back of the net three times in the last 12 minutes of the half. The half ended 4-2 in favor of the visitors.

After letting up another early goal in the second half, the Hornets found their rhythm and began to apply pressure on the Roadrunners. Pacheco found the upper corner of the goal to pull the host within two goals with 25 minutes still to play. Just five minutes later Munaguia found the net for his third goal by knocking in a loose ball in the box.

Hope for another goal was kept with two spectacular saves by goalkeeper Juan Ramirez. The first saw Ramirez push a shot heading for the upper corner over the crossbar. The second came moments later on a 1v1, which Ramirez pushed wide.

“We are going to improve. We have a good team, just look at all the people that showed up today. We need to play better and we will,” Perez said.

The Hornets look to bounce this weekend in the Adidas Tournament hosted by Mt. San Antonio College. Their next home game is September 8 at 3 p.m. where they’ll host El Camino College.