RIO GRANDE VALLEY ­– The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's soccer team opened their preseason with a 3-2 victory over the Coastal Bend College Cougars on Saturday at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex. 
 
The Vaqueros got all three goals in the first half while the Cougars scored their pair of goals in the second. 
 
The Vaqueros put together a strong first half that saw them use the concepts learned over the first four days of practice. 
 
"It was good to get everybody an opportunity to play today," UTRGV Head Coach Bryheem Hancock said. "It was the guys that were injury free and guys that put in the work over the last four days. In the first half, I thought they did really well. I saw a lot of positives out of it. I saw a lot of things that we worked on the last four days that I saw were implemented and understood. That makes me happy as well as the fitness of guys. We got a lot of minutes out of different guys and we wanted to see how they responded. All in all, for us winning is the main thing and we started that habit today."
 
Coach Hancock really enjoyed what he saw from his team in that first half and hopes to build on that this coming week in practice.
 
"It was us moving the ball, the tempo, and us setting the tone," Hancock said. "Guys have been putting in the work and we have been hitting on details. The guys were moving and playing for each other. Very unselfish. They were very composed and staying in position. They didn't go chase the game, but they trusted that the other guys around them would find them when the opportunity presents itself. I think we did a good job in the first half defending and it was good to finish off chances, especially from key guys."
 
The Vaqueros have one more exhibition match before the start of the regular season, which is next week when they host St. Mary's in Brownsville.
 
The Vaqueros want to use this week to sure up any questions on both sides of the ball and they also want to keep building off what they saw against Coastal Bend College. 
 
"For us, it's now cleaning up the defensive things," Hancock said. "Restarts is something we will hit again. Then we will flip the page to attacking. We have to get that sorted out and how we build and how we play. Then finding out the guys' tendencies and those relationships we talk about every day. How do we get them in spots to be most effective."

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