ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Despite a slight change in routine for its first AMC match of the season, William Woods (8-3-1, 1-0 AMC) romped to its sixth consecutive win with a 6-0 defeat of UHSP (3-6-1, 0-2 AMC) on Saturday. The Owls found offense from both expected -
Miles Andrews and
Breck McGrail each tallied for WWU - and unexpected sources against the Eutectics.
Evan Filer led the onslaught with a pair of goals, the first since his freshman season.
Aggressive pressure from Andrews opened the scoring in the sixth minute for Woods, as he forced a turnover just outside the attacking third, then dribbled through three UHSP defenders. After finding space, he slotted a pass through another pair of Eutectics to find
Mike Bhat on the far post for an easy tap in.
Just two minutes later, Filer doubled the margin for WWU from the right wing. Building through the midfield, WWU was able to create space for McGrail to send a pass out toward the right touchline. As he was making an overlapping run from his outside back position, Filer met the pass perfectly in stride and one-timed a shot toward the back post. The effort nestled just inside the upper corner of the net, pinging back across the goal into the near post side netting.
McGrail put his name in the scorer's column in the 20th minute with another highlight-reel strike, this time collecting a partially cleared corner kick at the top of the penalty area and rocketing a left-footed volley into the top of the net.
The Owls took a 4-0 lead into halftime courtesy of the foot of
TJ Mathias-Nwaulune, but Filer wasn't done with the offensive demonstration for WWU. In the 57th minute, the captain made another overlapping run into space, where Andrews spotted him. The pass hit Filer right in stride to put him 1-v-1 with the Eutectics' keeper, and after a settling touch Filer drilled a low shot between the legs of Jack Wolfe.
Matt Dworak needed to make only one save to earn his first solo clean sheet of the year, as the Woods defense held UHSP to just three shots total on the afternoon.
William Woods returns to Firley Field in search of its seventh straight win and ninth consecutive unbeaten match next Saturday, hosting Central Baptist College in a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
