Box Score
On a stormy night full of potential distractions, the No. 20 Wayland Baptist men's soccer team kept its cool in a 6-0 Sooner Athletic Conference-opening rout of Mid-America Christian on Friday night at J.V. Hilliard Field. When the match finally ended around 11:10 p.m., the Pioneers had secured the largest margin of victory in the five-year history of the program.
Wayland (6-1-1) and MACU (4-2-1) had to wait nearly an hour and a half to start their match because of lightning delays, but the Pioneers wasted no time setting the tempo once play began. Just 20 seconds into the action, WBU took a 1-0 advantage when
Vitalis Atemafac received a pass from
Miguel Teos, scoring his second goal of the season.
Head coach
Jamath Shoffner was especially pleased with the way his team, which lost to the Evangels, 3-2, in overtime last season, came out to start the match.
"I thought we came out really strong," Shoffner said. "Scoring in the first minute helped us set the tone for the rest of the match."
The Pioneer offense remained stagnant until the 22-minute mark when both teams headed for the locker room for a 40-minute lightning delay. The break seemed to help the Pioneers regain their focus, and they came out firing the rest of the night.
Six minutes after play resumed, Wayland took advantage of a corner kick from
Erik Luzanilla as
David Neuberth headed in his sixth goal of the year, putting WBU up 2-0.
An own goal in the 43
rd minute put the Pioneers up 3-0 before WBU's scoring spree continued in the 48
th minute.
Javier Parry received a pass down the middle of the pitch from Teos and beat a defender and the keeper to give Wayland a 4-0 advantage. The goal was Parry's first of the season.
Sophomore
Javier Cruz put the game further out of reach when he dribbled through a defender and put the ball in the bottom corner of the net, making the score 5-0 just inside 80 minutes.
The Pioneers' final goal came off the foot of newcomer
Miguel Lozano with just two minutes remaining in the game.
Juan Sanchez got the ball in front of the net and Lozano took care of the rest, putting WBU ahead 6-0.
The victory surpassed Wayland's previous largest margin of victory, a 5-0 shutout of Houston-Victoria in the second game last season.
With all the distractions and delays, Shoffner felt it was remarkable how well the Pioneers were able to play throughout the match, which ended almost four hours after its scheduled 7:30 start.
"I think our guys showed a lot of maturity with all the delays," said Shoffner. "They kept focusing on the task at hand and played really well tonight."
Shoffner also credited the Pioneers' success to the fact that Friday's match was Wayland's first SAC outing of the season.
"The guys were really up for the first conference game of the year," he said. "Mid-America is a good team that has improved each year since I've been around the league, but we were excited about this game and we played well."
The Pioneers return to the pitch on Tuesday when they travel to Chickasha, Okla., to take on the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma at 3 p.m. The Drovers (4-3) have slipped in the polls as of late, but have been ranked as high as 10th this season and still are receiving Top 25 votes. USAO opened conference play on Friday by blanking Oklahoma Baptist, 3-0.
The Pioneers next play at home at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6 against Oklahoma City University.
