Three goals in a three-minute span early in the match helped
Robert Ssejjemba and his Wayland Baptist men's soccer team execute their game plan to perfection as the Pioneers rolled past Howard Payne
on Tuesday evening at Hilliard Field, 7-1.
"With a game coming up Friday as well, we came into this game with a goal of trying to manage our playing time. We wanted to make sure we tried to have a good first half and get everyone on the field to get some minutes," Ssejjemba said.
Five different players scored goals – with
Santiago Pereyra and
James Westfield getting two each – while
Gonzalo Santa and Juan Basaba split time in goal for Wayland, which remained unbeaten at 4-0-1.
Adir Versano was very active and wound up with one goal and three assists.
Pereyra scored his first goal
9:22 into the match with the first assist from Versano. Two minutes later, Versano made it 2-0, then just a minute after that Pereyra found the back of the net again with an assist from Versano.
"Sometimes it's hard to come off a big win like we had in Austin (4-0 over Huston-Tillotson on Friday) and replicate the same thing. The challenge was to re-focus the guys onto the task and try to give the same effort, which they did," Ssejjemba said.
"When you score early like that it's easier to stick to the game plan. You feel like you're controlling the game it's a lot easier to do that."
Stefano Pesce got in on the scoring frenzy in the 32
nd minute, then about two minutes before halftime, team scoring-leader Westfield collected his fourth of the season on a long shot from 30 yards away, assisted by Versano. That made it 5-0 at the half.
Westfield got another goal less than 10 minutes into the second half, then 3½ minutes later
Gerardo Perdomo notched his first goal of the season to finalize the scoring.
Howard Payne (0-5) avoided the shutout with its lone goal in the 64
th minute.
The Pioneers outshot the Yellow Jackets, 23-5. Westfield fired six shots, half of which were on-goal. Santa collected the only two saves between him and Basabe in the first half.
The win kept Wayland atop the Sooner Athletic Conference standings as the only unbeaten league team. The Pioneers play their final conference tune-up
at 3 p.m. Friday in Dallas against Paul Quinn, a team which also is unbeaten at 3-0-2 with a schedule of all SAC (or former SAC) opponents. The Tigers have beaten SAGU (2-1), former SAC member Bacone (13-0) and Texas Wesleyan (3-1), while tying USAO (2-2) and Oklahoma-Panhandle State (3-3). Paul Quinn takes on Southwest Adventist the day before hosting Wayland.
"(Paul Quinn) will be a good test for us. Hopefully we can continue (our momentum) in Dallas and put up another good performance," Ssejjemba said. "Hopefully we can remain healthy and continue doing the small things well.
"With conference coming up (
next Tuesday at home against OPSU), it's important to manage our bodies. Everyone is excited. We want to ride that momentum and bring that into our first conference game."
