LONDON, Ont. – A pair of first half goals from Lucas Ventura and Christian Devia lifted the Western Mustangs to a 2-1 win over the McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon at Mustang Field.
 
"Anytime you can beat McMaster it's good," said Mustangs head coach Rock Basacco. "We beat them 4-1 last year here at home, and it was a long time coming, so we've beat them twice and it's great. The boys played fantastic."
 
The win keeps the Mustangs undefeated early in the season with a 2-0-1 record, while the loss is McMaster's first of the year and move the Marauders to 2-1-0 on the year.
 
"I think [the season] is shaping up well," said Ventura. "We had these expectations for ourselves early, so to come out and get all those points against good teams is really good for us."
 
Ventura netted his first goal of the season just 13 minutes into the contest on Saturday, bringing the ball in from out wide and sending it past the McMaster keeper to give Western an early lead.
 
"Ryan Quong put it down the line, I was able to press the defender and just cut in, hit a quick unexpected shot and it went in short side."
 
Devia extended the Mustangs advantage to 2-0 in the 35th minute, sending the ball along the ground and into the net to record his second goal in as many games.
 
While the Mustangs held the edge in the first half it was the Marauders who controlled things in the second. McMaster's efforts paid off in the 80th minute, as Sasha Ricciuti capitalized on a nice cross to pull the Marauders to within one.
 
McMaster continued to press until the final seconds, however the Mustangs defence stood tall to earn the 2-1 win.
 
"When you get a two-goal lead the tendency is to sort of relax a little bit, that's what we did and they took advantage of that," said Basacco about the difference between the first and second half. "They pressed, they pushed and pushed, and it seems like the idea is to try and defend a two-goal lead so then you're attack kind of fizzles a bit. We have to keep on playing the same way we did the first half. We have to keep on attacking, we keep on attacking that puts them back on defending, and then you don't have all that pressure at the end."
 
The Mustangs now have a bit of time to prepare for their next contest, with the Brock Badgers set to make their way to Mustang Field on Sunday, September 10, at 3:15 p.m.
 
"This gives us a full week to have five good training sessions and there's obviously a few things we still need to work on. The coaches are really happy with how the team has progressed, more on the defensive schemes that we've put into place, and now it's a matter of fine tuning our attacking play and to keep moving forward."