A wild first five minutes of Thursday’s non-conference soccer match between Dowagiac and visiting Buchanan helped the Chieftains earn a 5-4 victory over the Bucks.

The two teams combined for five goals in the opening flurry with Dowagiac grabbing a 3-2 lead.

Craig Zebell dented the back of the net first in the opening minute before the Bucks’ Kevin Dey tied the score at 1-1 with a goal in the second minute off an assist from Stephen Graber.

The Chieftains’ Tony Solis and Jorge Ruiz scored back-to-back goals in the third and fourth minutes to continue the scoring spree. Hazen McMeeken and Zebell had assists on the two goals.

Buchanan cut the lead to a single goal when Dey scored again with the assist of A.J. Braziel, also in the fourth minute.

Things settle down a bit after that.

Dowagiac increased its lead back to two goals when Adrian Martinez scored in the 17th minute, but the Bucks’ Alex Swem closed the gap back to a single goal with a goal in the 18th minute to make it 4-3.

Dowagiac finished with scoring with six minutes remaining in the first half on a goal by Alvaro Scherer.

There was only one score scored in the final 40 minutes as Swem picked up his second goal in the 49th minute with an assist from Brent Brown.

“Our defense broke down,” Dowagiac coach Mike Williams said. “We should have scored a lot more than we did. We didn’t counter-attack at all. We weren’t on top of things today, that’s what it comes down to.”

Dowagiac will travel to Hartford Monday.

Buchanan…4

Dowagiac…5

Halftime score

Dowagiac 5, Buchanan 4

First half

D – Craig Zebell 1st minute

B – Kevin Dey 2nd minute (Stephen Graber assist)

D – Tony Solis 3rd minute (Hazen McMeeken assist)

D – Jorge Ruiz 4th minute (Zebell assist)

B –Dey 4th minute (A.J. Braziel assist)

D – Adrian Martinez 17th minute

B – Alex Swem 17th minute

D – Alvaro Scherer 34th minute

Second half

B – Swem 49th minute (Brent Brown assist)

Shots

Buchanan 7

Dowagiac 15

Saves

Buchanan 11

Dowagiac 4