After delays, Pioneers crush Evangels

Box Score In the messiest soccer match of its season, the Wayland Baptist men's soccer team defeated Mid-America Christian, 5-1, in a Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinal that took more than four hours to complete Saturday night at a rain-soaked Hilliard Field.
 
The match was set to begin at 5 p.m. and the top-seeded Pioneers (13-3-2, 8-0-1 SAC) and eighth-seeded Evangels (4-13-0, 2-7) were going through their normal pre-game routines. However, Mother Nature had plans of her own.
 
Minutes before both teams took the field, a lightning strike was seen in the area and protocol states the game must be delayed for at least 30 minutes.
 
The match finally began an hour later, and the Pioneers didn't miss a beat. Just seven minutes in, Guillermo Deal took a shot on goal that deflected off of an Evangel player and reached the back of the net. The dime was delivered by Taval Whittaker.
 
To answer, MACU's Evangel Gleydson Neri received a header from teammate Caleb Rodan to tie things up at 1.
 
"I'm not happy with that goal," WBU Coach Cristhian Ospina said. "Those things shouldn't happen to us. We have to play focused the whole 90 minutes."
 
With 20:11 left in the first half, another strike of lightning put the match on pause once more.
 
Finally, right before 8 p.m., the game resumed and wasn't stopped again. With impressive amounts of water and ponds dotting the pitch, Ospina was outside before the match continued with his assistant coaches kicking the ball around.
 
"At this point, the guys know what to do on the field," he said
 
Continuing where they left off, the Pioneers quickly went on the offensive with a goal from Alex Castillo (22nd-minute). Soon after, Deal closed the scoring in the half for the Pioneers with two more goals in the 27th & 28th minute, topping off his hat-trick and pushing his total for the season to 12. The first was assisted by Emmanuel Emmas and the second by Gian Scalise.
 
"Once our scorers get going, we're good," Ospina said.
 
After the half, Pioneer Yago Xavier put the icing on the cake with a score in the 52nd minute. That goal was assisted by Deal.
 
The Pioneers advance to the conference tournament semifinals and will host fifth-seeded Southwestern Christian (10-5-3) at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Hilliard Field. The Eagles, ranked the equivalent of 37th in the NAIA, tied Oklahoma City 0-0 after double overtime but advanced on penalty kicks, 4-3.
 
Wayland lost to Southwestern Christian, 1-0, on Oct. 25 in Bethany, Okla., before the Eagles were forced to forfeit that match and another win due to an ineligible player. Those forfeits dropped SCU from the No. 3 seed to the No. 5 seed.
 
"The only thing we have to do is put the goals away," Ospina said. "We have to stay humble, play one game at a time and keep improving."