BOOKED HISTORY

By Brandon Petersen

Winning has always come first for Jordan Di Lonardo.

Since stepping onto the pitch at Westcliff, he's been chasing rings, and he's piled them up at an alarming rate. But along with that team success has come a steady stream of personal milestones — the latest arriving Wednesday night at OC Great Park.

Di Lonardo bagged a brace in a 3-0 victory over Bethesda University to become the Warriors' all-time leader in career points (87), passing his former teammate Quentin Hornung, who now plays professionally in Europe.

A free kick opened Di Lonardo's first window in the 25^th minute, and he added his follow-up eight minutes later to give the Warriors a 2-0 cushion at the break.

"The biggest thing about Jordan is he's become a fantastic leader," Westcliff head coach Randy Dodge said. "Regardless of the goals and assists that he has provided for the program, as a leader he's been fantastic.

"And as a man he's continued to grow and mature and just understand about life. For us, when he walks away from this program, he's going to make our program better, and our program made him better."

Di Lonardo now sits five goals shy of tying Hornung's career goals mark and six away from owning the all-time crown outright.

More importantly, the Warriors got back on the right side of the ledger Wednesday night with a convincing win over a burgeoning rival in Bethesda.

Adi Vaknin added the third goal for the Warriors in the 61st minute, while Mohamed Sidi Haiba picked up the assist.

Westcliff finished with 29 shots, 11 of them on frame, and held Bethesda to just two total attempts on goal.

Dodge praised his side's response after a rough patch of form.

"Listen, these guys haven't trained bad one day," Dodge said. "So, it was good for, even in the skid that we've been in, to come out here and perform and do the work. A lot of guys got a lot of playing time, which was important. At the end of the day, I want these guys walking away feeling successful for the things that they're doing, and I felt that the last couple of games they didn't — and they deserve to."

Up next, Westcliff (3-3-1) welcomes new Cal Pac rival Stanton to the pitch, for what is sure to be an electric contest between two clubs who've exchanged heated pleasantries in the past.  

Get your popcorn ready.

Kickoff Saturday, Sept. 27^th is docketed for 2 pm at OCC.