Box Score (PDF)

FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton's offense erupted and the defense held Cal Poly scoreless as the Titans recorded a lopsided 4-0 shutout win Sunday afternoon at Titan Stadium.

Fullerton (5-7-0, 2-0-0) got two goals from Maribell Morales along with scores from Sarah Fajnor and Nano Oronoz while goalkeeper Morgan Bertsch blanked the Mustangs (6-6-1, 1-1-0) for her first victory of the season.

"I'm very impressed with the women's performance, not just today but on the weekend as a whole," said Titans head coach Demian Brown. "We talked about it as a group in regards to being able to start this conference season being 0-0-0 and using the 10 games ahead of us as opportunities to learn from ourselves and learn about ourselves."

The Titans outshot the Mustangs by a 2-to-1 margin for the match, 13-6. They held Cal Poly to just one shot in the first half, which was blocked.

The Titans opened the scoring in the 27^th minute, Morales notched her first goal on a free kick after Tala Haddad was fouled near the left edge of the box. Morales curled the free kick to the upper corner at the far post, beating Cal Poly goalkeeper Sophia Brown to put the Titans ahead.

"All I was thinking about was back post, back post," Morales said. "If I could either score back post or someone could head it in so [get it] as close to the back post as I can and it just hit the post and went in and I was really happy about that."

Six minutes later, Morales stuck again as Fajnor dribbled up the middle of the field. She locked up with a Cal Poly defender and was able to get the ball down to Morales with her left foot. Morales then dribbled to the top of the box and fired a low shot with her left foot to the far post. Brown dove to her left but could not get a mitt on it as the ball crossed the goal line and went in for a 2-0 Fullerton lead.

"I saw Maribell on the side and I just remember thinking 'get it to Maribell, get it to Maribell,'" Fajnor said. "I've played with Maribell throughout high school so, just her cut, shot and it was a goal."

The Titans put the match away in the 47^th minute as they were awarded a corner kick almost immediately after the break. On the ensuing kick, the Mustangs were whistled for a foul in the box, awarding the Titans a penalty kick. Fajnor stepped to the spot and put the kick away to give Fullerton a three-goal lead.

Oronoz capped the scoring in the 82^nd minute off a breakaway goal after a perfect through-ball from Ivy Diego sprung Oronoz loose and the Titans forward beat Brown low and to the far post.

Defensively, the Titans notched their third clean-sheet of the season as they allowed the Mustangs to get just two shots on target, both of them knocked away by Bertsch in net. The Titans defense also blocked four shots on the afternoon.

"I think our backline is unconventional but we are very confident in the things that we do," said Titans midfielder Kaycee Hoover. "We credit ourselves with being full of pride and we take a shutout very seriously and we really go for that every time. Our way of play is something that teams don't really look like they are ready for and I think we capitalize on that really well."

Bertsch, who played in her third match of the season, recorded her first win and now has a 0.36 goals against average and a .886 save percentage in just under 247 minutes of action this season.

"We take a lot of pride in making it really hard to score on Cal State Fullerton as a whole because it is a team effort," Bertsch said. "If they don't score, then we can't lose so we definitely pride ourselves on shutouts and then try to take that momentum up to the forwards."

Bertsch was a late addition to the starting lineup after Jennifer Stuart had to be pulled out in warm ups due to an injury.

"We have a great working situation where we have two phenomenal goalkeepers," Brown said. "It was unfortunate that Jenn took the injury but there was zero concern or worry from myself, the coaching staff or the team that our 'backup goalie' was going to play. "[Morgan] is phenomenal, she did a great job. She commands everything in the back. Her distribution is fantastic. Great hands, as we saw late in the game. Extremely brave to come out and capture things. I think it's a benefit of who we are and the type of personnel that we have that we could be put in a situation 15 minutes before kickoff and still feel very confident about the game at hand."

The Titans will now hit the road on Thursday afternoon to take on UC Davis before returning Sunday night for a home contest against preseason Big West Conference favorite Long Beach State at 5 p.m. That match will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Notes: The Titans have started 2-0-0 in conference play for the first time under Brown and just the fifth time in program history. The last time the Titans won their first two games of the conference schedule was in 2006. That team would go on to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, falling to No. 3 UCLA on the road… Morales is the first Titan to score two goals since Rebecca Wilson scored a pair at Cal Poly on Nov. 1, 2015. The last Titan to score multiple goals was Christina Burkenroad, who netted a hat trick against UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 5, 2015 in the Big West Conference Tournament… Bertsch has now recorded three shutouts in her Titans career. Sunday also marked her 19th career game played and 11th career start… Fullerton's four goals on Sunday are a new season high… Sunday's 4-0 win tied the largest margin of victory for the Titans against Cal Poly in 28 all-time meetings. The Titans scored a 4-0 win over the Mustangs on Oct. 21, 2012 at Titan Stadium… Sunday was Fullerton's 10^th victory all-time against Cal Poly and the Titans are now 6-4-4 against the Mustangs at Titan Stadium.