Strong Offense Leads to Win

Springfield, Mo.–The William Penn men’s soccer team played another solid all-around game Saturday afternoon as it downed Evangel 3-0 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play.

The Statesmen (5-3, 2-2 Heart) were great on both ends with a 23-6 edge in shots against the Valor (1-6-1, 0-4 Heart). WPU had many more chances coming on goal at 13-4.

Ryan Louis (Fr., Concordia, Saint Martin, Business Management) started off the scoring for WPU as he took a crosser from Timo Fankhauser (Fr., Bern, Switzerland, New Media) and deposited it into the net to go up 1-0 at the 29:46 mark in the first half.

Luigi Mongan (So., Manchester, England, Business Management) then took matters into his own hands, or more appropriately feet. A saved Statesmen attempt ricocheted in his direction and he fired back home to give the Statesmen a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

Continuing where they left off in the first half, the Statesmen put more pressure on the Evangel back line right away when Shalon Knight (Sr., Swetes Village, Antigua and Barbuda, Digital Communication) drove past midfield before passing it to a waiting Chanin Olandin (So., Oslo, Norway, Sports Management) who got past the goalie for the easy goal to extend the lead to 3-0 at the 46:51 mark, essentially putting the game away.

Olandin led WPU with seven shots, while Managa had four and Louis added three. Matias Breit (Fr., Osorno, Chile, Psychology) recorded the shutout with three saves.

“The guys knew that Evangel was a much-improved team, and it was going to be a tough game especially after the long trip,” Head Coach Simon Brown said. “We are starting to look more like ourselves after two good results. We know that Tuesday versus Benedictine will be another test, so we must be at our best again.”

Next up: William Penn will host Benedictine at Drost Field next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in another Heart battle.