From the opening to the closing whistles Friday afternoon, the Bears put together a winning formula on the home pitch shutting out No. 20 Pearl River 2-0.
 
"I'm just loving that the work is paying off," Southwest head coach Zach Mills said. "We've been working hard and I think that we deserve it. Pearl River is a difficult team to beat and today we were the better team."
 
The Bears (3-0) got off to a fast start early on pushing the ball on the opposing side for large portion of the first half. Their aggressiveness paid off in the 24^th minute when Jeysson Cruz scored, taking advantage of a big assist from Caleb Trisdale.
 
"It was amazing, I never thought that I would go up in the air but I did it," Cruz said. "I saw the ball coming in and I just jumped in and hit the ball as hard as I could and I'm glad that I put it in, it was amazing."
 
Despite being up, Southwest kept its foot on the gas trying to add to its lead. The Bears' stellar play on offense continued for the remainder of the first half and it carried over to defense as well as sophomore goalkeeper Loan Marin prevented the Wildcats from lighting up their side of the scoreboard.
 
Marin and the Bear defense continued to be a thorn in the side of the Wildcats in the second half. Simultaneously, the offense continued to shine and it showed on the scoreboard as Justin Ruiz, the reigning MACCC Offensive Player of the Week, sent a beautiful shot from about 25 yards out past the Wildcat keeper putting Southwest up 2-0 with 4:47 to go. Cruz provided the assist capping-off a stellar day on the pitch for the Gulfport-native.
 
From there, the Bears maintained the momentum before running out the clock and preserving the win.
 
Southwest returns to action Tuesday with a road contest at Mississippi Gulf Coast at 7 p.m.