NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene men's soccer team gave coach Joel DeLass a pretty good birthday present Thursday.

The Nighthawks won their first game of the season, defeating Seattle Pacific 2-0 in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener at NNU Field.

"It was a very happy birthday, indeed," DeLass said.

Rafael Junqueira scored both goals – one on a header off a set piece in the 45th minute and one off a scramble in front of the net in the 83rd minute. They were Junqueira's second and third goals of the season.

"The last two games we got scored on in the last minute," he said. "Finally, we were able to score at the end of the game. We created a lot of chances in the second half, so it was good to score and to finish the game 2-0."

NNU lost at Point Loma and Biola last week on goals in the final minutes of action as the young Nighthawks struggled to put teams away so far this season.

"We are a young group and we have made a lot of mistakes that we have been punished for," DeLass said. "Today it was kind of that step forward. We eliminated the mistakes and played that full 90 minutes."

Junqueira scored off of a nice header with just seconds left in the first half. Alex Mitrovic earned a free kick and hit a curling ball in directly to his teammate who headed it in.

In the second half, the Nighthawks (1-5-1 overall, 1-0-0 GNAC) had plenty of chances to put the game away but didn't do so until Junqueira was in the right spot at the right time.

Skyler Munroe dribbled down the left flank eventually crossing it to Logan Wood, who had his shot blocked. The ball squirted to Jake Levine who passed it to a wide open Junqueira at the far post.

"It was very good," Junqueira said of the win. "Some games, we played very good and deserved to win. The past five games there were probably two or three we deserved to win, so it was nice to finally get one at home."

Junqueira dedicated the win and his two goals to his grandfather Rodofpho, who died last week.

Jacob Hillyer made four saves in goal, while the Nighthawks out-shot the Falcons 8-4. Lars Helleren suffered his first loss in goal for Seattle Pacific (3-4-0, 0-1-0).

NNU is back in action at 1 p.m. PDT next Thursday at Saint Martin's.