Box Score
Men's Soccer vs. JBU Gallery
The Wayland Baptist men's soccer team wanted to come out fast and take an early lead in its Sooner Athletic Conference match against John Brown on Thursday night at Hilliard Field, and they did just that, going up 2-0 within the first 31 minutes of the game. Those early goals were the only two scored the entire match for both teams, giving Wayland a 3-0 conference start and a 9-2 overall record.
“I think we came out well in the first half and we were really up for the game,” head coach
Jamath Shoffner said. “We knew they were going to be really tough and they are compact defensively, so we knew it was going to be tough to break them down.”
The Pioneers'
Samson Defeugaing took a crossing pass to the middle of the box from
Jevaughn Vance at the 13:54 mark to score with a header. WBU struck again 16 minutes later with another assist by Vance to
Travis Somersall for a perfect shot to the left corner of the goal.
Shoffner said the early lead gave his team the confidence to play a solid game from there on out.
“We encouraged our guys to come out hard for the first 20 minutes and set tempo,” he said. “It really relieved some of pressure off us when we scored early and then we were able to settle in a little bit after that. That 2-0 is probably the worst lead in soccer because our team thinks we're in control and the other team thinks they're still in it. I told our guys that the game wasn't going to be over until the end.
“The second half was tougher for us. We had chances to score and just didn't. John Brown was organized, they got behind the ball and made it tough for us by playing good defense.”
Both were solid on defense, in fact, allowing only nine shots each, with JBU (4-5-1, 0-3) taking four on goal and Wayland taking three. In what proved to be a tough, physical matchup, the teams combined for 36 fouls, with 19 coming from John Brown and 17 from Wayland. Additionally, both teams had two players receive yellow cards.
Shoffner said the back-and-forth between the two teams is just another day at the office in the SAC.
“Whenever you play in our conference, it's always going to be a hard, tough game and it's going to be a fight.”
The Pioneers will look to notch their 10
th win of the season and stay perfect in conference play as they host Rogers State (5-6-2, 1-1-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at J.V. Hilliard Field. The Hillcats tied Lubbock Christian on Thursday, 2-2 in double-overtime.
“Rogers has had some good wins this season,” Shoffner said. “They beat Oklahoma City and OCU was ranked in the top 25 earlier in the season. We played them in a tough game last year and won in double overtime, so we know they are going to be a really good team.
“It's tough coming off these games, and Saturday games are tough because we're tired and it's a quick turnaround. This is a huge one for us, but it's good to be playing at home again.”
