Pioneers Start Season with Tie & Win

The MNU Men's Soccer team started the season with a tie and a win this weekend. On Friday night the men played Wayland Baptist University (TX) and after 2 overtimes the game ended in a 1-1 draw. On Saturday, the Pioneers played AIB College of Business (IA) and came away with a 4-0 win.
 
Wayland Baptist came into the game having received votes for the pre-season National Top 25 poll.  MNU took the lead in the 10th minute of play with a goal from newcomer Lucas Machado. Lippi Souza was credited with the assist. After the goal MNU played the remainder of the half without creating much around the goal. Wayland was working hard to tie the game and they had the better of the chances. The second half started out how the first half ended with Wayland Baptist pressuring the Pioneers all over the field and creating the best chances.  In the 68th minute, that pressure paid off as they were able to tie the game off of a corner kick. This goal woke MNU up and for the remainder of the half and in both overtime periods they had more chances and looked like they could have taken the win but couldn't find the net. "Wayland Baptist is a very solid team," said Coach Wardlaw. "They are athletic, very fit, and organized. Coach Shoffner has done a great job with the program in just a few short years. They are definitely a top-25 caliber team and we were probably fortunate to come away with a draw today. This was a great opening game for us and I thought our guys did some things really well and I saw plenty that we can work on."
 
In Saturday's game against AIB the MNU team looked more like themselves. From the beginning they dominated possession and were looking to create goal scoring opportunities. AIB was dangerous a few times off of counter attacks and MNU's goalkeeper, Chris Eriksson, was called into action several times. In the 13th minute Aurelien Norest scored a goal from an Eddie Morales corner kick to put MNU up 1-0. Neither team created much in the remainder of the half as MNU outshot AIB 5-3. The second half was more open and in the 61st  minute MNU extended the lead. Daniel Clifton played a beautiful cross into the box and Lucas Machado scored a brilliant volley to put MNU up 2-0. In the 82nd minute Eddie Morales scored from an Alvaro Beltran assist that was the end product of a beautiful possession sequence. The final goal came from a pair of newcomers. Jelani Jillo flicked a ball into space that Atanas Karagyaurov slotted home to account for the 4-0 final. "I was proud of the guys' effort today," said Coach Wardlaw. "Playing two games in less than 24 hours in the conditions was very tough. They played very well today and managed the game well."

MNU moves is 1-0-1. The next match is at Tabor College on Tuesday the 27th at 7:30.