Ricardo Ramos scored two goals to power top-ranked Wayland Baptist to its second season-opening shutout, a dominating 4-0 victory over Huston-Tillotson, on Wednesday afternoon at Hilliard Field.
On the heels of Saturday night's season-opening 3-0 win over Lubbock Christian, defending national champion Wayland (2-0-0) dominated possession against the Rams (0-2), who managed to get off just two shots the entire match. The Pioneers ended with 14 shots, half of which were on-goal.
"This team didn't really attack us at all and gave us respect. We took advantage of that in the first 25 minutes," Wayland coach
Cristhian Ospina said.
Wayland was up 3-0 less than 20 minutes into the action.
"We scored early. That gives you a little bit of an advantage," Ospina said.
Junior transfer
Chris Eduardo got the scoring going with his second goal of the young season on a shot from 20 yards out with an assist to
Federico Ucar and
Nick Ramos.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 when Ramos scored the first of his goals. The senior from Portugal was slicing through the top of the box when he took a cross from
Santiago Pereyra and made it count.
Less than eight minutes after that Ramos scored his third goal of the year on a free kick from 40 yards away. The ball was partially deflected before landing into the left side of the net.
The final goal came in the 58
th minute and was the first as a Pioneer for junior transfer
Adir Versano of Israel. The goal went in as another double-assist from Eduardo and
Luis Almeida.
Senior
Ziggy Camejo, well-protected by the Wayland defense, spent just over 76 minutes in goal before giving way to freshman
Arnaldur Guarsson of Iceland, who made WBU's lone needed save.
"I'm happy we didn't get scored on. We were better being organized and defending," said Ospina, who went on to say that his team's play dipped a bit after the Pioneers secured their 3-0 lead.
"We played well for the first 25 minutes, but after that we slowed down," he said. "I'm glad we got to play a lot of people."
The Pioneers play on the road for the first time Saturday when they take on another Red River Athletic Conference school, Wiley College, at 1 p.m. at Frisco's Moneygram Soccer Park. Wiley lost its season-opener to Texas Wesleyan on Aug. 25, 4-2. Wayland and Wiley also met last season in Frisco – at FC Dallas' Toyota Stadium – with the Pioneers winning 2-0 before later having to forfeit due to an ineligible player.
After Wiley, WBU will face what likely will be its toughest challenge of the preseason against No. 7 Columbia College (Mo.). Another neutral-site match, the contest will take place in Tulsa, Okla., on Sept. 7. Wayland and Columbia tied 1-1 in the national quarterfinals last season before the Pioneers advanced on penalty kicks, 5-4.
"We hope to have everyone cleared and be injury-free by that time, but right now we're just concentrating on Wiley," Ospina said.
The coach pointed to the recent national success of other Sooner Athletic Conference teams, including Southwestern Christian's win over No. 2 Missouri Valley, USAO's win over No. 6 Mobile, Ala., and John Brown's triumph over No. 19 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.).
"That tells you a lot about the conference," said Ospina, who called the SAC the best league in the country. "The level of play has improved, so we have to continue to improve ours.
"We're still really, really far from where we need to be."
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