Box Score MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Coming into Thursday, the Wayland Baptist men's soccer team was tied for fifth place with Texas Wesleyan in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings. Thanks to a 3-1 win over Bacone College, the Pioneers have cleared a way for a chance at a top-four seed.
The Pioneers (7-4-2, 3-3 SAC) went into their matchup against the Warriors (4-8, 0-6) following a tough 2-1 loss to Southwestern Assemblies of God University last Saturday.
Fortunately for the men's team, they had a short memory.
Senior
D'Angelo Garcia got the Pioneers on the board first with a goal in the 27th-minute, assisted by senior
Arturo Valle-Sardaneta. Wayland took that 1-0 lead into halftime.
The Warriors didn't take long after the break to get on the board. Just four minutes into the second half and the match was tied.
Fortunately for the Pioneers, there was plenty of time left so that they would not endure their third tie of the season. Junior
Taval Whittaker broke the deadlock in the 70th-minute with an assist from junior
Abel Yemane.
Nine minutes later, to put the icing on the cake, Valle-Sardaneta scored off a penalty kick.
"We played pretty well today," WBU coach
Cristhian Ospina said. "It was a good team effort."
As the season winds down, the Pioneers could potentially play a first-round SAC Tournament match at home at Hilliard Field. In order for that to take place, Ospina said one thing must happen for sure.
"…We have to win our next three games to guarantee that spot," he said.
The first of those three matches comes at 3 p.m. Saturday in Siloam Springs, Ark., against the No. 2 team in the conference, John Brown. The Pioneers are 2-1 in the past three seasons against the Golden Eagles, but lost in their most recent match last season.
