Box Score The Wayland Baptist men's soccer team has scored at least five goals in a match once – just once – each season for the past two years. After scoring five goals on Monday night, but with more than half of the 2014 season remaining, the Pioneers hope to surpass the five-goal mark a few more times over the next couple of months and break their "just once" five-goal mark in 2014.
Taval Whittaker scored twice for the second time this month, notching the first and last goals of the match, and Wayland scored netted four second-half goals to cruise to a 5-0 victory over McMurry University on Monday night at J.V. Hilliard Field.
"The first half we were a little bit flat. We had possession of the ball but we weren't going forward," WBU coach
Cristhian Ospina said after his team's fourth straight victory. "The second half we told them to start shooting and going forward more. That was really important."
After getting off five shots in the first 45 minutes, Wayland (5-2) spewed off 17 shots in the second half as the Pioneers outshot the War Hawks (1-3), 22-8. Twelve of the Pioneers' shots were on goal.
"Before we had (scoring) chances but we weren't taking advantage. Now we're putting away the goals," Ospina said.
Whitakker's first goal came with just over eight minutes into the action. He took a pass from
Mamadou Sanon down the middle of the field before beating McMurry goalkeeper Ian McCarthy, leaving a wide-open net. That was all the support Pioneer keeper
John-Ramses Thomas needed. Thomas ended up with two saves for his second shutout of the season.
The scoring stalled until the flood gates opened for the Pioneers, who recorded four more goals in an 18-minute span midway through the second half.
First up was
Renato Dos Anjos, who after a feed by
Abel Yemane tallied his first goal of his Wayland career on a shot from about 30 yards out that flew over McCarthy's head.
Some five minutes later,
David Neuberth – coming off a hat trick performance in a 3-1 win over Howard Payne on Friday – headed in his fifth goal of the season on a corner kick by
Juan Sanchez.
It was Sanon's turn after that as he got goal No. 1 on the season following a cross by Neuberth. Sanon placed it into the lower right corner for a 4-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Whittaker scored the most impressive goal of the evening as he headed in a shot after diving for a ball crossed by
Yago Xavier. With 15 minutes remaining, Wayland had its fifth goal, and the Pioneers recorded their most lopsided victory since beating Mid-America Christian 6-0 in last year's Sooner Athletic Conference opener. The only other time WBU has scored at least five goals was in a 5-0 shutout of Houston-Victoria early in the 2012 season.
Speaking of conference openers, the Pioneers have only one more outing before playing theirs. Wayland goes to Odessa to take on Texas-Permian Basin (1-1-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday then a week later hosts Oklahoma City University at 7 p.m. for the SAC debut.
"We've got to keep working hard," Ospina said. "I feel like we're coming together, although we still have some things to work on."
The first-year coach likes the momentum the Pioneers have gained since losing their only two matches to ranked opponents in Alabama on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
"Hopefully we keep it up all the way to conference," Ospina said. "That's where it really matters."
Wayland's next home match is Sept. 30 against USAO.
