It wasn't that long ago that
Shiloh Posey and his Wayland Baptist women's soccer team was in the same boat that the Southwestern Assemblies of God Lady Lions found themselves in Tuesday afternoon at Hilliard Field.
SAGU showed up for the Sooner Athletic Conference match against the red-hot Pioneers with the minimum 11 players. Then, some 25 minutes into the action, an injury took out one of the Lady Lions and they played the rest of the first half a player down.
She was able to make it back for the second half, but by then the game was already decided as Wayland cruised to a 7-1 victory to remain atop the conference standings.
"We are very glad to add another win to the season, but also understand – very well – the situation that SAGU found themselves in today and have the greatest admiration for the all-out effort that the girls and Coach (Paul) Hason gave," said Posey, whose team traveled to Arkansas last season to face John Brown in the first round of the SAC Tournament with an injury-depleted roster of only 10 available bodies.
What a huge turn-around the Pioneers have made since then. Wayland now owns an 8-2-1 record and sits atop the conference with a 3-0 mark. One more win will give WBU its second-best record in school history, behind 2013's 13-6-1 ledger. In addition, Tuesday's victory marked the Pioneers' program-record fifth straight. In 2011 Wayland won four in a row.
"Everyone on the roster who was able played tonight," Posey said. "I was pleased that everyone was able to get involved because each of the ladies has been putting in a lot of time and effort."
It became obviously early – very early – how Tuesday's match would go as freshman
Allison Alvarez-Garcia notched her first career goal just 25 seconds into play.
"I think we set a team record today for longest win streak in our history, but also for the fastest goal scored," Posey said.
Then, just 3:10 into the match, junior
Taylor Moore, who assisted on Alvarez-Garcia's goal, scored the first of her program record-tying three goals to make it 2-0.
"It was nice to start so quickly and continue to see several of the girls do very well today," Posey said.
SAGU realized its only goal on a header by Clarissa Galindo almost 16 minutes in.
"Our defense was very solid with only one minor glitch that came off of a SAGU corner kick. We missed an assignment and one of the SAGU players was able to sneak between a couple of our players and they scored," Posey said.
"Other than that they all did a great job of cutting out passes, stopping scoring opportunities, and generally shutting down the SAGU attack. Both goalkeepers (
Jennette Guia played the first 45 minutes and
Kaitlyn Brantzeg the final 45) did a good job because in a game like today, the hardest part is to stay mentally switched on when there's limited action."
There may have been limited action for WBU's keepers, but there was plenty on the other side of the pitch where just over two minutes after SAGU scored Moore struck again. Six minutes later Moore, with an assist by
Estefany Gonzalez, put in her eighth goal of the year to make it 4-1.
Moore became the fifth person in program history to score three goals in a match. Most recently,
Jodian Morris did it twice and
Emarie Holland four times. Holland (2010-13) is Wayland's top career goal scorer with 33 while Morris (2014-15), who notched a record 19 goals as a senior, ranks second all-time with 26.
Freshman
Trinity Rouse got in on the action with her second goal of the season, assisted by
Iris Nevarez, before Nevarez, a sophomore, took her turn finding the net just two minutes later.
"That particular goal was special because Iris came to us as a goalkeeper but was pressed into field service last year because of our severe number of injuries," Posey said. "She's worked very hard this year, too, and I'm happy to see her efforts rewarded today."
A foul on
Logan Ybarra in the penalty box resulted in junior
Megan Attenborough converting a penalty kick that made it 7-1 44 seconds before the first half mercifully came to an end. It was the third goal of the season for Attenborough.
The Pioneers likely could have challenged the record for goals in a match, 12, but Posey called off the dogs in the second half. After launching 17 shots in the first half, Wayland took nine in the second half. It was the most goals since also scoring seven in a shutout of Bacone three years ago.
Nine different players attempted shots for Wayland, including eight by Moore (five on-goal) and six by Rouse (four on-goal).
SAGU (5-6-1, 0-3) was limited to four shots.
"I'm pleased with the result, but we keep talking about not getting comfortable and being sharp mentally and physically because we know that there are still several opportunities out in front of us and we can't take anything or anyone for granted," Posey said.
Wayland is the only SAC team without any conference losses or ties after No. 6 John Brown and Oklahoma City battled to a scoreless tie over the weekend in Arkansas and after Texas Wesleyan defeated No. 25 Oklahoma City in Fort Worth on Tuesday, 3-0. No. 24 Science & Arts of Oklahoma previously fell to OCU, 3-2.
Next for the Pioneers is a trip to McPherson, Kan., to battle Central Christian College (7-4, 2-1) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. CCC opened league play with a 5-2 win over SAGU, lost at Texas Wesleyan 2-1 in double-overtime, then on Tuesday defeated Southwestern Christian 3-2.
"We travel to Central Christian over the weekend and hope to continue the progress we've made," Posey said.
After that Wayland faces the SAC's three ranked teams in a row, starting with No. 6 John Brown on Oct. 13.
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NAIA Women's Soccer Coaches' Top 25 Poll – Poll Five (Oct. 2)
| RANK |
LAST WEEK |
SCHOOL |
RECORD |
FINAL POINTS |
| 1 |
1 |
Spring Arbor (Mich.) [18] |
8-0-1 |
498 |
| 2 |
2 |
William Carey (Miss.) |
9-1 |
472 |
| 3 |
4 |
Southeastern (Fla.) |
9-1 |
456 |
| 4 |
3 |
Benedictine (Kan.) |
10-0-1 |
448 |
| 5 |
6 |
Vanguard (Calif.) |
7-1 |
419 |
| 6 |
5 |
John Brown (Ark.) |
8-1-1 |
417 |
| 7 |
7 |
Martin Methodist (Tenn.) |
9-0-1 |
408 |
| 8 |
8 |
Cumberland (Tenn.) |
9-0 |
402 |
| 9 |
9 |
Keiser (Fla.) |
10-2 |
383 |
| 10 |
10 |
Westmont (Calif.) |
9-0-1 |
348 |
| 11 |
11 |
Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) |
8-2 |
342 |
| 12 |
14 |
Oklahoma Wesleyan |
4-2-1 |
310 |
| 13 |
15 |
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
3-2-1 |
303 |
| 14 |
16 |
Mobile (Ala.) |
7-3 |
284 |
| 15 |
18 |
Hastings (Neb.) |
7-0-1 |
274 |
| 16 |
19 |
Georgia Gwinnett |
7-2 |
246 |
| 17 |
12 |
Marian (Ind.) |
5-3-2 |
224 |
| 18 |
22 |
Taylor (Ind.) |
8-1-2 |
205 |
| 19 |
21 |
Columbia (Mo.) |
7-3 |
193 |
| 20 |
20 |
Midland (Neb.) |
6-1-1 |
179 |
| 21 |
25 |
Trinity Christian (Ill.) |
11-0 |
177 |
| 22 |
22 |
The Master's (Calif.) |
8-3-1 |
148 |
| 23 |
24 |
Central Methodist (Mo.) |
8-3 |
143 |
| 24 |
17 |
Science & Arts (Okla.) |
8-3 |
127 |
| 25 |
NR |
Oklahoma City |
3-1-2 |
122 |
Dropped from the Top 25: University of Northwestern Ohio
Others Receiving Votes: Eastern Oregon 95, Ottawa (Kan.) 81, Indiana Wesleyan 37, Aquinas (Mich.) 35, MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) 26, Truett-McConnell (Ga.) 22, Madonna (Mich.) 18, Cumberlands (Ky.) 13, University of Northwestern Ohio 10, St. Thomas (Texas) 9, Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) 9, Jamestown (N.D.) 5, Bellevue (Neb.) 4, Concordia (Neb.) 4, St. Ambrose (Iowa) 4, Grace (Ind.) 3, Middle Georgia State 3
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