William Penn Upsets #9 Baker
Baldwin City, Kan.–The Statesmen men’s soccer team capped off a fabulous three-game road trip with a 3-1 win over #9 Baker in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Sunday.
WPU (7-2, 4-0 Heart), winners of five in a row, tallied three unanswered goals in the final 46 minutes of action to collect its third-straight road win. After defeating both Benedictine (last Saturday) and Grand View (Tuesday) in overtime, the navy and gold were able to claim this victory in regular time.
The win marks the program’s seventh over a top-25 opponent in the last five years, headlined by three in 2018.
Despite being outshot 11-8, the visitors had more quality attempts with a 4-3 edge in shots on goal. In a matchup postponed one day due to weather, the Wildcats (6-3-2, 3-1 Heart) struck first with a goal in the 25th minute.
BU nearly took that same advantage into the break, but Donny Mesina (Sr., Inglewood, Calif., Sports Management) knotted it up with 59 ticks remaining with an unassisted score. It is Mesina’s second goal of the campaign.
Ethan Martinez (Fr., Kansas City, Kan., Business Management) then put William Penn on top for good with an unassisted goal at the 59:31 mark. The freshman now has five goals in 2019.
Just three minutes after the Wildcats missed a penalty kick to tie the contest, Eduardo Bonatto (Sr., Rio Grande, Brazil, Business Management) capped off the day’s scoring by putting away a PK chance of his own in the 74th minute. He is now the squad leader in goals with seven.
Austin Munoz (Sr., Harrisville, Utah, Sports Management) secured the win with a pair of saves between the pipes.
“This was a fantastic win for our program,” Head Coach Jaymee Highcock said. “Winning three road games in one week is tough to do, but we showed during this past week that we should be considered one of the best teams in the nation. Baker is one of the toughest places to play in the NAIA and I thought we controlled the game from start to finish.”
“We showed real threat in our attack with our three goals,” Highcock added. “There are still a lot of games to be played this year, and we will take them one at a time.”
Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa Monday to host Iowa Wesleyan in non-conference action at 6:30 p.m.
