Central Valley found the back of the net twice in the first three minutes Tuesday night, and host Lathrop never recovered in a 2-0 win for the Hawks in Western Athletic Conference boys soccer action at Woodward Park.

“The first half with those two early goals hurt us,” Lathrop coach Alfredo Reynaga said. “We were on the other side of things Thursday when we played Livingston and scored two goals in the first 20 minutes, and Central Valley did that to us here on the same field and it was hard to recover from.

“We had a lot of opportunities, hitting the post a few times. We had a couple of free kicks that were clear-for-goal opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of. We made too many mistakes, and when you are playing a good team, unless you minimize all those mistakes you will not be able to be around anywhere to win it.”

Alan Hernandez came close to halving the Central Valley lead late in the first half when his shot from the top of the 18 caromed off the crossbar.

The Hawks (4-0-2 WAC, 9-5-6 overall) outshot the Spartans (3-2-1, 6-5-3) 19-14 with 11 on frame for Central Valley to six for Lathrop. Spartans goalie Julian Ceja posted nine saves, with his Hawks counterpart Oswaldo Cisneros robbing Lathrop of at least two goals with his six saves.

Tahte Yang got Central Valley on the board in the first minute, and Alan Alvarez doubled the score soon after.

“We were lucky to get those early goals,” Hawks coach Horacio Garcia said. “I think that is the best we have started the whole season.

“That two-goal lead at the beginning helped us manage the game the rest of the way.”

Lathrop travels to Beyer on Thursday night at 6:15.

Junior varsity

Central Valley 4, Lathrop 1

The Spartans’ Santiago Ceja tied the game at 1-1 in the first half but Lathrop could not capitalize on its second-half opportunities.