Offense Powers Statesmen to Victory

Oskaloosa--Goals were on the menu Wednesday as the William Penn men's soccer team defeated Clarke 4-0 in a Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup.

William Penn (4-3,1-2), which not only won its first league game but also scored its first goal in Heart play, outshot Clarke (3-1-2,0-1-2) by a 23-10 margin. Eleven of those attempts came on goal.

Milton Magana (Sr., Los Angeles Calif., Sociology) got the Statesmen on the board at the 22:21 mark as he rebounded a try by Chanin Olandin (So., Oslo, Norway, Sports Management) and snuck a shot past the Pride goalkeeper.

Clinging to its 1-0 advantage late in the opening half, WPU struck again with a goal at the 43:09 mark. Conor Keylock (So., Johannesburg, South Africa, Sports Management) chipped a ball over the Clarke defensive line and Ryan Louis (Fr., Concordia, Saint Martin, Business Management) ran on to it. Just before the goalkeeper could clear it away, Louis punched it forward and into the netting to go into the half up 2-0.

The Statesmen dominated play after intermission, peppering the goal with 13 shots, but had nothing to show for those efforts until the 72nd minute. That is when Shalon Knight (Sr., Swetes Village, Antigua and Barbuda, Digital Communication) took a free kick from just outside of the penalty box and bent a ball around the defense and into the near post.

Soon after that, Olandin closed out William Penn's scoring. He took a free-kick pass from Magana and placed it out of the reach of the keeper at the 74:43 point in the game.

Olandin was active all evening, finishing with eight shots (four on goal), while Maxime Eschemann (Fr., Saignelegier, Switzerland, Business Management) tallied four attempts. Magana, with three shots, and Louis, with two, also had multiple tries at the goal. Matias Breit (So., Osorno, Chile, Psychology) posted a clean sheet (the third of the year for WPU) as he finished with two saves.

A red card for Clarke toward the end of the contest capped off a forgettable night for the Pride.

"We got the monkey off our back being able to score that first goal, which opened up the rest of the game for us," Head Coach Simon Brown. "We started playing with confidence and attacking hard, but still missed some more other good scoring opportunities. This was a good win against a very good Clarke team."

Up Next: The Statesmen will be on the road in another Heart of America Athletic Conference battle against Evangel Saturday at 2:30 p.m.