Pioneers match most-lopsided win ever, 6-0 over McMurry

Box Score

Cristhian Ospina wanted to see a dominant victory when the Pioneer men's soccer team opened its season on Sunday against Huston-Tillotson. He didn't get dominance then, but he got it Tuesday as Wayland matched its largest margin of victory ever in its 2015 season-opener, 6-0 over McMurry at Hilliard Field.
 
"What we did this game I wanted us to do the last game, which was finish the game in the first half so we could play a lot of people," Ospina said. "Those were the biggest positives tonight: that we scored goals and finished it in the first half."
 
The Pioneers (2-0) scored three goals in each half, and five different Pioneers got on the board, led by Arturo Valle-Sardaneta's two goals. His first came less than seven minutes in on an assist by Emmanuel Emmas, then some seven minutes later the two switched roles with Emmas scoring with an assist by Valles-Sardaneta.
 
Taval Whittaker made it 3-0 with a penalty kick midway through the first half.
 
Jonathan Luna got in on the action about 90 seconds into the second half, with Emmas being credited with another assist. Valle-Sardaneta's pushed in his second goal less than four minutes after that, then Carlos Aguiler capped the scoring with 20 minutes to go on a sweet shot from 40 yards away that flew over the McMurry goalkeeper. D'Angelo Garcia had the assist.
 
Palemon Plancarte earned the shutout, but didn't record a save the entire night as the War Hawks, in their season debut, did not record any shots on goal among their six shots. Wayland ended with 30 shots, 12 of which were on goal.
 
The 6-0 final matches the largest win and most goals in a game in the program's seven-year history. The Pioneers also beat Mid-America Christian, 6-0, last season.
 
"We played a little bit better (than in Sunday's season-opener), but we cannot get comfortable with this win. We have to keep improving," Ospina said. "This will help our confidence, but now we just have to forget about it and concentrate on getting better."
The coach said the Pioneers are in for a tremendously competitive weekend when they travel to take on Houston Victoria at 4 p.m. Friday and St. Thomas at 5 p.m. Sunday as part of doubleheaders with the WBU women.
 
"This is probably the toughest weekend we'll have. The teams will be a lot tougher, a lot faster, just much better all around," he said. "Both teams are really good, and some teams in the tournament are ranked nationally. So this will let us know where we stand. If we win those it will help our rating a lot."