When he joined Cosmos B last month, Rafa Garcia brought along the reputation of a hard-nosed, hard-working midfielder with Major League Soccer experience.

 

A goalscorer?

 

Not as much.

 

But Garcia surprised fans of the National Premier Soccer League team Wednesday night by scoring twice, including a golazo in Cosmos B's 2-1 home opening win over the Brooklyn Italians. The victory avenged the team's elimination from the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by its rivals, a 3-2 loss on April 29.

 

The 29-year-old midfielder entered Tuesday's encounter with seven goals in 91 soccer games that included stints with FC Hasental (NPSL), LA Galaxy (MLS), LA Galaxy II (United Soccer League), and Cosmos B.

 

So, the odds of Garcia scoring one was pretty high.

 

Scoring two? Astronomical.

 

A winning goal air-mailed from 55 yards out in the 82nd minute?

 

Incredible, simply incredible.

 

"I don't score many goals," he said after Cosmos B's 2-1 triumph over the Brooklyn Italians at Hofstra Soccer Stadium on Tuesday night. "So, I guess that was special more so because I felt we played well enough to get the points. Unfortunately, they score. I kind of try my luck and we get three points and that's the most important thing."

 

Garcia took some vital lessons from Cosmos B's 3-2 elimination loss to the Italians in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play-in match on May 6.

 

"I knew from playing them last week, I had a few chances from outside the 18," he said. "I figured this time if I focused a little more, put them on frame, we'd get lucky and we did."

 

He also took the defeat to heart and spoke to the coaches about his performance.

 

"We went down against them in the Open Cup game three times and the third one we didn't bounce back," he said. "I take that stuff to heart. One of my biggest attributes is that I'm a leader and I feel like i failed the team the last game in the Open Cup. I spoke to the coaches about it. I knew that if we conceded, my mentality was to uplift the team and get us going again. And that's what I did."

 

Garcia remained even-keel about his goals and the game, saying Cosmos B had another match, against Greater Lowell NPSL FC at home Sunday.

 

"Look, we're not going to get carried away with it," he said. "Last week, according to many people, we were the worst team on the face of the earth. And now we win a game down a man and it looks like we're hot shots. We won't get carried away with it. We'll carry on what we're doing and now we focus on Sunday's game."

 

A member of two MLS Cup championship sides during his Galaxy tenure, the 5-6, 150-lb. Garcia joined Cosmos B during the offseason. Head coach Carlos Mendes heard that Garcia was available and pursued him.

 

"I'd seen him play," he said. "I had seen him play in MLS. Immediately, he was a guy we were interested in. Had a conversation, loved his character, heard things about him. He's a difference maker."

 

For Garcia, it was a no-brainer.

 

"When the Cosmos come knocking, you pick up the phone and you run with it," he said.

 

As a central midfielder, Garcia has been doing plenty of running.

 

"His role is usually to distribute and sit in," Mendes said. "We've given him the freedom to go forward, team with Danny [Szetela, midfielder] to interchange. We want him to get forward at times, but just excellent, excellent overall."

 

So far, so good.

 

"It's been great," Garcia said. "Everyone here has been amazing. I'm a long ways from home. Everyone in the organization has treated me with a lot of love and respect and it certainly has made the transition a lot easier."

 

Garcia and his teammates don't have much time to rest on their laurels with another home game against Greater Lowell NPSL FC at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale, N.Y. Sunday at 4 p.m.

 

"We suffered a few injuries [in the game] and that's never ideal," he said. "I think this win, the way we fought, stuck with each other for 90 plus minutes, certainly gives you confidence. Our focus now is to recover as quickly as possible and get everyone healthy and ready for Sunday's game."

 

Cosmos B (2-0-0, 6 points) enter the weekend atop the North Atlantic Conference Division. Greater Lowell will play its season opener at second-place Kingston Stockade FC (1-0-0, 3) on Saturday night.

 

"The season's so short, every point matters," Mendes said about Cosmos B's 10-game regular season.

 

And as Rafa Garcia demonstrated, so does every goal.