Balanced Attack Puts WPU in Driver’s Seat After Homecoming Shutout of MNU

Oskaloosa–The Statesmen men’s soccer team made easy work of No. 2 MidAmerica Nazarene, winning 4-0 in a top-10 Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup Saturday.

With the Homecoming victory, No. 10 William Penn (10-0-6, 8-0-4 Heart) now leads the conference with 28 points, three ahead of both MNU (10-4-2, 8-3-1 Heart) and Grand View, the squad’s next opponent.

The hosts, who fell twice to the Pioneers in 2025, including in the national quarterfinals last December, avenged the losses by outshooting their foes 15-6.

Despite owning an 11-3 edge in attempts, the navy and gold were locked in a scoreless tie late in the first half. Fortunately, Mario Navarro (Grad, Mira, Spain, Masters of Sports Management) finally broke through at the 35:13 mark off a pass from Alexander Greaves (Sr., Hertford, England, Sports Management).

Then, with only 59 ticks until halftime, Navarro again factored into a goal. He got a ball over to Max Mayer (Jr., Wendover, England, Exercise Science) who found the back of the netting to make it 2-0 at the break.

Greaves added a goal to his first-half assist by beating the Pioneer goalie in the 75th minute. Hector Bastos (So., Vitoria, Brazil, Computer Science) earned the assist as WPU went on top by three goals.

The proverbial cherry on top came in the waning seconds as Yusei Suzaki (So., Nagoya, Japan, General Accounting) scored unassisted at the 89:19 mark.

Javier Perez (So., Alicante, Spain, Business Management) was his crew’s most active offensive player by recording three shots, while Sil Milder (Fr., Arnhem, Netherlands, Sports Management) needed only one save to post William Penn’s 11th shutout of the fall.

“We are happy with this performance, but we are not done yet,” Head Coach Joe Minton said. “We will keep moving one game at a time.”