Diablo Valley College’s soccer team put themselves back at .500 in their conference record after defeating American River College Tuesday at Vikings Field.

The girls got off to a fast start after sophomore forward Erica MacDonald scored a goal in the opening minute of play off an assist from Megan Melara.

The fast start was a major key towards the teams performance the rest of the way.

“Lately, we’ve been starting flat, and that’s how teams take advantage of us, and that’s how we concede goals early, I think that by scoring so early this game it totally helped us” said Erica MacDonald

“Considering the fact that almost the exact same thing happened to us in the last game in the opposite direction against Delta, it was important to have a good first 15 to 20 minutes and have a solid performance” said coach Cailin Mullins.

Later on in the 11th minute, forward Noelle Lemos would score her 18th goal on the year, keeping her tied at fifth on the state scoring list.

Just five minutes later, Erica MacDonald came through again to notch her second goal of the day and fifth on the season.

MacDonald believed her previous experience playing against American River was a key for her success on Tuesday.

“I had a lot of good energy, I played well against them when we played them at their home and I think that worked really well mentally for me” said MacDonald.

Defense played an important role as well, with the team putting up an impressive shut out on the other side of the ball.

“I saw grit, we certainly had a bit of good fortune too, at the end of the day it was just a gritty defensive performance, especially in the second half, they did a better job of being organized” said coach Mullins.

Goalkeeper Danielle Davis tallied a total of five saves on the day as well, including an impressive save off a rebounded penalty kick in in the 54th minute.

When asked about the saves, Davis felt it motivated her team.

“It felt pretty good, I feel like it fired the team up and made them want to keep fighting to keep our clean sheet” said Davis.

The Vikings next game will come at against Sacramento City this Friday at 3:30 p.m.