STERLING – After a scoreless first half, it was a scoring explosion in the final 31 minutes for Sterling and Rochelle on Thursday night at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

The Golden Warriors took the lead less than 10 minutes into the second half, but the Hubs answered emphatically with four goals in the final 28 minutes for a 4-1 victory in their nonconference clash.

“First half, we were kind of sloppy, but we made it up in the second half with all those goals,” said Rochelle’s Yandel Mendez, who scored the last two. “I feel like we kept up the intensity and at the end, it paid off. I’m really proud of my teammates for how we came out.”

The teams combined for just seven shots in the first half – and only three on goal – but both offenses started to find their groove after the break.

Sterling (3-3) notched the first goal, as Felipe Vasquez chased down a long pass from Mauricio Herrera and punched in a shot for a 1-0 lead with 31:16 to play.

It was a welcome sign for coach Chris Interone, who said he had a lot of players with tired legs due to playing in their sixth game in six days.

“I knew my starting lineup needed to rest, so I made some changes and put in a different lineup with people in different positions,” Interone said. “The chemistry’s a bit off when you do that, but I was really happy that our style of play didn’t change, didn’t drop off, and that’s a credit to our players.”

Rochelle (5-1-1) answered less than four minutes later, as Antonio Ruiz made a run up the left side, then found Saul Avila in front of the goal for a bicycle kick into the net to tie the game with 27:26 left.

Avila then returned the favor to Ruiz 10:10 later with a pass from the baseline left of the goal back to the center of the field; Ruiz ripped a 15-yard shot into the top right corner for a 2-1 lead.

“The whole mid[field] and everyone playing well, the whole team coming together,” Avila said about the key to the offensive outburst. “We figured out how they were lining up and how to play against that. We’ve been playing with each other since we were kids, so we know how each other play pretty well.”

The Warriors had a couple of golden opportunities to retake the lead between Rochelle’s first two goals, but one shot banged off the crossbar with 22:52 to play, then another went just wide of the lower left corner with 20:31 remaining.

The Hubs made it 3-1 with a give-and-go play with 10:19 to go. Mendez passed to Avila, who then chipped it over the defense back to Mendez for a shot into the middle of the net.

Mendez capped the scoring 20 seconds later, when he nabbed a steal in front of the Sterling goal and slipped it under keeper Antonio Santiago, who looked to have the shot stopped before it squirted past him into the lower left corner of the net.

“It was just adrenaline running through my whole body. I didn’t even have a second to think, it was just ‘Shoot!’” Mendez said. “I just pulled the trigger.”

Santiago made six saves, and Rochelle goalie Danny Garcia stopped four shots. The Hubs outshot Sterling 17-10, including 10-5 on frame, and had five corner kicks to the Warriors’ one.

“We knew Rochelle was going to come at us, just because last year we tied,” Interone said. “We definitely didn’t have the firepower going into this game that we wanted, but I think we fared pretty well with what we had.”