After failing to score in their first road trip of the soccer season, the Brownwood Lions found their offensive rhythm again in Tuesday night’s return to Gordon Wood Stadium, a 5-1 victory over the Burkburnett Bulldogs.

The Lions (2-1) yielded a goal in the first minute of the contest, but dominated the rest of the way, opening a 3-1 advantage by intermission while tacking on two more goals in the first 10 minutes of the final half.

“The hardest thing is being creative in the attacking third and finding ways to put the ball in the back of the net, not just rely on athleticism, but to be able to analyze the game and break teams down, exploit the space and find the back of the net,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “Against Marlin (1-0 loss last week), we played extremely well over two-thirds of the field but the attacking third we struggled with. We were trying everything, but they sat their team back and it was hard to pick apart. We just continue to put a huge emphasis on finding combination plays and angles and create space and opportunities to score. It was beautiful to be able to sit on the sideline and watch us take what we’ve been practicing onto the pitch.”

Raven Prado recorded his second hat trick in as many home matches with three goals – one in the first half and two in the second – while Alex Vaquera found the net twice, both times in the opening half.

“After struggling last week against Marlin in the attack, I think we were a little bit in our heads as far as how to attack and our composure on the attacking third, different kinds of attacking plays and how to play out of our formation,” Westerman said. “But after we put the first one in the back of the net, it re-lit our confidence and our ability to be able to score and attack.”

Vaquera knotted the score at the 21:34 mark of the first half from 30 yards out, finding the bottom right corner of the net. Vaquero then put Brownwood in front, 2-1, with 9:27 left before intermission as he found the net again from 20 yards out, again finding an opening on the right size.

Prado tacked on insurance goals with 1:32 left in the first half, just 32 seconds into the second half, and with 31:24 remaining in the contest.

“Raven has been phenomenal for us all four years, a great kid, very coachable that works extremely hard, and when we score goals Raven Prado is going to be on the score sheet,” Westerman said. “Alex is another extremely talented attacking player in the midfield for us, and has a cannon of a shot we’ve been waiting for him to unleash. When he has room, he’ll put it in the back of the net.”

Regarding allowing a goal just 31 seconds into the contest, Westerman said, “We had challenges going into this game, contested balls in the air and playing strong. We’re a relatively small team as far as our physical stance. Contesting 50-50 balls and not making it easy for our opponents to win clean balls on headers makes a difference, and we did an outstanding job with that most of the game. But the one time we didn’t do it, their big man up top was able to crack a header off the cross bar and they had a player in the right position to finish it. Being down 1-0 was another big challenge to rise to.”

The Lions return to action at 7 p.m. Friday as they visit Burnet.