The Packers weren’t messing around.

The Austin boys soccer team got off to a fast start in a 5-0 win over Faribault in Art Hass Stadium Monday night.

Senior forward Martin Manocchio scored two breakaway goals in the first eight minutes and Austin (6-2 overall, 3-2 Big Nine) went on to score four times in the first half. Manocchio’s first goal came off of a strong boot from keeper Ryan Rasell, and the second came on a bomb from Jordan Broers.

Austin’s Alex Klock said the Falcons (2-5 overall, 0-3 Big Nine) were practically daring the Packers to go deep.

“Faribault pushes up towards the half line a lot. So we ended up with a lot more long through balls. ” he said. “If they want to play that off-side trap on us, we’ll eat them up every time. We’ve got people who can beat their defense one on one.”

Pedro Herrera scored in the 18th minute on the first of Rolando Rubio’s three assists. Peter Lindahl scored in the 32nd minute for Austin and Herrera scored again in the 59th minute.

Klock said the Packers, who have won five straight, still remembered when they settled for a tie at Faribault last season.

“Faribault’s a rivalry game and we feel like we have a lot better team this year and we had a lot of momentum coming in. When we played Pine Island (Saturday) and got the lead, we slowed it down,” Klock said. “There was definitely no intention of doing that here, no matter what the score was. We’d of ran it to 30 if we could.”

Austin head coach Jens Levisen was pleased with what his team showed, although he thought they may have tried to push it up-field a few too many times.

“They knew they wanted to come and show something tonight and we played solid soccer tonight,” Levisen said. “I saw a few more through balls then I’d like to see, but that’s how they were setting up their defense and you have to react to it.”

Austin will host its youth soccer night Thursday. All youth soccer players wearing a jersey will get in for free and there will be two youth games at halftime.

Players will also receive a free poster of the Austin varsity soccer team.