Incarnate Word men's soccer coach John Smith went into Wednesday night's Heartland Conference matchup against St. Mary's University hoping that his team would continue to demonstrate their newfound scoring prowess after a two-win, 11-goal performance this past weekend.
The Cardinals showed that they were still seeing the field very well, crushing the rival Rattlers, 4-0, and remaining undefeated in Heartland Conference play with a 4-0-0 first-place standing.
“It was a great effort all around,” Smith said. “We could have easily been up 4-0 at halftime.”
UIW (6-3-3 overall, ranked fourth in the NCAA Division II South Central Region) peppered St. Mary's (4-6-1, 2-2-1) with 25 shots – some that arched just wide, and some that banged off goal piping – while STMU's only scoring chance came with less than five minutes to play.
On that chance for the Rattlers, UIW goalkeeper Ryan Eschenburg challenged an STMU forward who was charging the net and made the initial save on a low shot. However, the ball bounced towards the open net and a crashing Tyler Santiago came in and cleared the ball away with the ball mere inches from the goal line.
The shutout is Eschenburg's fifth of the season.
On the opposite side, UIW got started early when Jason Cunliffe ran downfield with Tom Morrill, who was taking the ball down the sideline towards the Rattlers' net. Morrill ripped a low pass past the defender to Cunliffe, who instantly turned and cracked the ball into what seemed like no space between the goalkeeper and the post for the 1-0 lead in the second minute.
The Cardinals had 12 shots in the first half and went into halftime with a 1-0 lead. In the second half, however, UIW eventually wore down the STMU defense and ripped off thee more scores. But the great part of those goals was that the Cardinals were giving their bench players time on the field and they were producing.
“It's great for those guys to come in and there not to be a drop off in the talent and the effort,” Smith said. “Now we have a good problem because these other players came in and made a case for them to get more playing time.”
The first was on a free kick opportunity from 20 yards out. Cunliffe touched the ball to Michael Langford, who fired a low shot to the far post. The goalkeeper got a piece of the shot, but not enough to keep it from sailing into the goal.
A great individual effort by Callum Riley to draw the defense in near the goal before dropping a pass back to Ian Ankney for a shot near the penalty kick spot resulted in the third goal for UIW. Finally, Zack Knight put a header just under the crossbar after Desmond King beat his defender near the backline and chipped a cross to his teammate.
Every goal scored was the first goal of the season for the Cardinal who put it in net.
Now riding a three-game winning streak, UIW will play host to Texas A&M International University at 7 p.m. Friday night at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium.
