Strong Second Half Uplifts Statesmen

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's soccer team overcame a tough and scrappy game to pick up its second win of the season in a 4-0 shutout over Iowa Wesleyan Wednesday.

The Statesmen (2-0) were slow out the gate, going into halftime tied at 0-0. Emotions were high all evening as WPU and Iowa Wesleyan (0-2) combined for six yellow cards and three red cards. Even with those distractions, William Penn was able to get off 18 shots with seven being on goal.

Rejuvenated after the break, the Statesmen were on fire in the second half. WPU scored in the first couple minutes as Luigi Mongan (So., Manchester, England) put in a shot off an assist by Maxime Eschemann (Fr. Saignelegier, Switzerland). That tally opened the floodgates.

William Penn then scored back-to-back goals within two minutes of each other with Kemoi Williams (Sr., St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda) and Edan Sears (So., Telford, England) doing the damage.

Mongan ended the night's scoring with his second goal of the game on a penalty kick. Joseph Kitengie (Sr., Benoni, South Africa, Business Management), Lukas Koch (Sr., Moers, Germany, Sports Management), and Chanin Olandin (So., Oslo, Norway) all recorded assists on the night as well.

Starting goalkeeper Harry Nash (Sr., Basingstoke, England, Sports Management) kept the Tigers off the board for 60 minutes, but was ejected due to a hard foul. His replacement, Rafael Martins (Sr., Boca Raton, Fla., Business Management), then locked up the combined shutout. Both players managed one save in the victory.

"I'm very happy with the result and how disciplined our guys were in the face of some adversity," Coach Simon Brown said.

Next Up: The Statesmen will remain in Oskaloosa Saturday, hosting Midland in non-conference action at 2:00 PM.