WPU Wallops Mustangs with Season-High Offensive Output

Oskaloosa--Hugo Cornish (Fr., Sydney, Australia, Business Management) and Joseph Kitengie (Sr., Benoni, South Africa, Master's of Organization Leadership) each scored twice and Emre Baris (Fr., Dortmund, Germany, Business Management) participated in three goals as the Statesmen men's soccer team took care of Mount Mercy 6-1 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Wednesday.

#14 WPU (9-1-4 overall, 4-0-3 Heart) extended its winning streak to three games and has not fallen since its lone setback of the year on September 4 against William Carey.  Wednesday's victory sets up a clash between the top two programs in the Heart as the navy and gold travel to Marshall, Mo. on Saturday to take on league-leading and #16 Missouri Valley at 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday's game was originally scheduled for the evening, but was moved up in an attempt to get ahead of the weather.  That unfortunately backfired as lightning strikes in the area postponed the game for well over an hour.

William Penn entered the bout just behind the Mustangs (7-2-3, 4-2-1 Heart) in the standings, but once play actually started, the home team took care of the visitors with ease, including scoring four times by intermission en route to a 2023 high of six goals.

The home crew was locked in from the start with three corner kicks and two shots in the first seven minutes of play.

Jaime Rozalen (Fr., Valencia, Spain, Business Management) finally put the Statesmen on top at the 13:16 mark off a pass from Lukas Koch (Sr., Moers, Germany, Master's of Sports Management).

Just over a minute later, Cornish tallied the first of his two goals on an unassisted effort.  The freshman then notched his second score in the 18th minute with help from Baris.

The Statesmen, who recorded an 8-4 edge in shots in the first half (18-8 overall), continued to pour it on as Kitengie drove a ball from Baris into the netting.

William Penn did not slow down in the second period with Kitengie, off an assist from Luigi Mongan (Jr., Manchester, England, Business Management), posting his second goal at the 55:25 juncture.

The hosts were mere minutes away from notching another shutout, but MMU broke it up with a goal.  Baris answered the late score with an even later one (just 17 seconds remaining), putting away a ball that was assisted upon by Mongan and Rozalen.

By far the more physical team, WPU committed 19 fouls, compared to just six for the Mustangs.  The victors also held a 4-0 advantage in corner kicks.

Seven different Statesmen ended up with at least two shots with the trio of Baris, Cornish, and Rozalen all finishing with three each.

Sean Bohan (Jr., Dublin, Ireland, Business Management) produced three saves and did not allow a goal, while Haakon Utesch (Jr., Algoma, Wis., Business Management) came up with a stop off the bench as well.

"Our players started the game off with lots of energy," Head Coach Simon Brown.  "Playing against the second-ranked team in the conference and having to wait longer because of the weather delay, we had a lot of pent-up anxiety and we took it out on them.  They had some dangerous players who we had to account for and our back line did a great job limiting their shots.  We are happy to get our forwards firing and get different goal scorers each game; there is great competition in that group.  We will do our best to rest up and prepare for league-leading Missouri Valley on Saturday night."