Navarro Tallies Second Hat Trick of Year in Win Over IWU
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–Diego Navarro (Fr., Madrid, Spain, Mechanical Engineering) posted a three-goal performance just over a month ago in non-conference action and accomplished the feat again Monday as the William Penn men’s soccer team defeated Iowa Wesleyan 3-1.
WPU (9-5-1), which reached the nine-win plateau for the first time since 2013, excelled in a difficult situation as it played a man down for the final 15 minutes. Despite having one fewer player on the pitch than the Tigers (7-6-2), the hosts snapped a 1-1 tie with two late goals to finish their non-conference slate with a 4-1-1 record.
With little to play for in the non-league matchup and coming off arguably the biggest men’s soccer win ever one day earlier, several Statesmen starters took the night off, but not Navarro who is making a serious run at a 13-year-old record.
Navarro was the centerpiece of an offensive attack that included outshooting IWU 25-9. The freshman got the Statesmen on the board first at the 22:05 mark by finishing a pass from Steve Lee (Jr., Camberley, England, Exercise Science). The play started as a corner kick and after it was headed up inside the box several times, Lee finally gathered it and dished it to Navarro for a drive that went into the netting.
Unfortunately, Iowa Wesleyan, an old Midwest Collegiate Conference rival of WPU’s, answered in the 44th minute to make it 1-1 at halftime.
The contest remained 1-1 past the midway point of the second stanza and then things got even more bleak for William Penn as it lost a player to a red card. The foul surprisingly ignited the navy and gold, though, as a pair of touches put the ball at the Navarro’s feet and he gave the Statesmen the lead for good at the 77:52 juncture.
Sirleaf Wiah (Fr., Brooklyn Park, Minn., Computer Science) took a throw-in from Jonathan Riley (Fr., St. Neots, England, Exercise Science), dribbled it to the end line, and rolled it back to Riley whose centering pass was hit in by Navarro.
Another two-assist goal came less than two minutes later. Moussa Ndiaye (So., St. Louis, Mo., Business Management) won a drop kick by the IWU keeper. He then pushed it forward to Wiah, who one-touched it in front of Navarro. The freshman tracked it down just before the opposing keeper could and popped it past him to finish off his hat trick–the 17th ever at WPU.
Navarro now has 15 goals on the year, which is one shy of the single-season record of 16 set by Joe Druppel in 2004. He is only the third player in program history to record multiple hat tricks and the first ever to manage more than one in a single campaign.
Caleb Pipes-Goulsbra (Sr., Lincoln, England, Exercise Science) saved five shots in the win.
“This was not our greatest performance, but luckily we came away with the win,” Head Coach Jaymee Highcock said. “Playing games on consecutive days can be very demanding, but fortunately a few of our key players had some big moments and won the game for us.”
Next Up: William Penn remains in Oskaloosa Saturday to host #12 Central Methodist in Heart of America Athletic Conference action at 7:30 p.m.
