OKLAHOMA CITY – Second-ranked Mid-America Christian scored three second-half goals and upended Wayland Baptist in the Sooner Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Tuesday evening at Dill Soccer Field.
The Evangels improved to 8-1 overall while the Pioneers fell to 3-4-1 with their third straight setback.
MACU broke the deadlock in the 51
st minute when a free kick from the right wing deflected off a Wayland defender and got past diving Pioneer keeper Adriano Coppolechia.
The Evangels' second goal, in the 65
th minute from Ricardo Ferreira, also deflected off a WBU defender with the initial shot coming from 16 yards away.
MACU put it away in the 88
th minute when Diego Real, after a takeaway, scored from 23 yards away.
Wayland's third scoreless outing and second in three contests saw the Pioneers just miss on several prime chances to put the ball in the net as MACU keeper Jeremi Abonnel recorded four saves on a dozen WBU shots.
Daniel Ruiz fired a team-high four shots for the Pioneers.
Santiago Sanchez,
Leonardo Marini,
Angel Rivas and
Santiago Hernandez had Wayland's four on-target shots.
Coppolechia logged four saves while facing 19 MACU shots.
Next for the Pioneers' is a home match at 3 p.m. Friday against unbeaten John Brown (4-0-2), which kicks off SAC play Wednesday at Oklahoma-Panhandle State (2-1-1).
