KANSAS CITY, Mo.—After a dominating performance in its season opener, the William Woods University men's soccer team will look to pick up its second win on the season at Avila University on Sunday afternoon. Kick-off will start at 3 p.m.
In its last time out, the Owls (1-0), beat Ozark Christian College 6-0, behind the highlighted performance from senior
Jacob Hawes, who registered his first career hat-trick, while also adding an assist. Also, finding the back of the net for the Owls was
Alex Severino,
Anthony Moscatello and
Daniel Paez.
In net, freshman
Conor Cable and sophomore
Ivan Monterrubio combined for the shutout. The Owls controlled the pace of the game from start-to-finish, as they outshot OCC 23-1 in the game.
The Owls got on the board early, as Moscatello found the back of the net in the first minute of play, off an assist from Hawes. Just one minute later, Hawes scored his first of three in the game, off an assist from fellow senior
Paulo Conelian.
Then, in the 21
st minute,
Luca Stroeter connected with Hawes on a corner kick, giving the senior two goals on the night and extending the Owls lead to 3-0. In the 31
st minute, Conelian dished out his second assist on the night, linking with Severino for his first goal on the year, to make it 4-0 WWU at the half.
The Owls would go on two more goals in the second half, as Hawes scored his third on the night off a corner kick and senior Paez recorded the sixth and final goal for WWU, as the team cruised to a season opening win.
This will be the second meeting in the last two years' between Avila and WWU, as last year in the Owls home opener, despite outshooting the Eagles 24-7, Avila walked away with the shocking 1-0 victory. The team got an early goal at the 6:22 mark in the first half from Louis Gallagher and the Eagles were able to hold on for the next 84:00 minutes of play.
"Avila is a tough team to play, as they are typically very good defensively," said head coach
Nathan Mason. "They beat us last year when we dominated the game, but HAAC teams' are always tough to play against. I will look to add subs into the game to make an impact and that could be the difference in my opinion."
He added, "I really want to get some quality minutes from our key players, as game fitness will be a huge step for us in moving forward towards the AMC games that are coming up."
This will be the second game on the season for the Eagles, as at 3:00 p.m. today, they host reigning American Midwest Conference (AMC) Champion, Park University.
Avila is coming off a 5-13-1 record in 2013, while going 1-5-1 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC).
The team lost leading scorer Trent Nichol from last season, but returns Gallagher, whom totaled five goals and one assist in just seven games. The Eagles also return Jesus Revilla in goal, who started in 16 games, made 90 saves and held a goals against average of 2.140.
Fans make sure to stay updated on wwuowls.com tomorrow evening for a full recap and score from Kansas City.
