WHEELING, W.Va. (Oct. 7) - The Wheeling Jesuit men's soccer team took an early lead against Concord and finished strong to claim a 5-3 victory at Bishop Schmitt Field on a warm Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinals improve to 7-2-2 overall, 6-2 in Mountain East Conference (MEC) play. Meanwhile, the Mountain Lions fall to 3-7-1 overall, 3-5-1 in conference play.
The Cardinals put 12 shots on goal, with five finding the back of the net. Seniors
Martin Minuzzi (Cordoba, Argentina/Nazareth) and
Jordan Simpson (Brampton, Ontario/St. Edmund Campion), junior
Angel De Jorge (Caceres, Spain/Colegio San Antonio de Padua), and freshmen
Javier Mangado (La Rioja, Spain/Ies Praxedes Mateo Sagasta) and
Dylan Schraffenberger (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) each scored goals. Sophomore
McKinley Fodness (Issaquah, Wash./Skyline) picked up two assists, with
Pedro Crespo (Madrid, Spain/Colegio Santa Maria) and Minuzzi adding assists of their own.
The match opened up quickly for the Cardinals. Minuzzi sprinted ahead to get on the end of a long ball and chipped the ball past the keeper from inside the 18-yard box in the second minute.
Moments later, Fodness delivered a through-ball to Simpson, who found space behind Concord's defensive line and scored with a low shot in the fourth minute to put the Cardinals ahead 2-0.
Mangado gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead in the 18th-minute when he collected a long pass from Crespo and slotted a strike past the goalkeeper.
The Mountain Lions answered with their only goal of the first half in the 30th-minute when they converted a penalty-kick to close the gap to two goals entering halftime.
The second half was played much closer, with each team scoring twice before the game's conclusion. De Jorge and Schraffenberger came up with the two second half goals for the Cardinals to nullify Concord's efforts. Fodness delivered the cross that De Jorge drilled off a volley to beat the keeper in the 53rd-minute. Schraffenberger scored when he dribbled around the keeper, kept his composure, and passed the ball into an open goal in the 62nd-minute to make the score 5-3.
WJU shot 19 times and earned 10 corner kicks to keep their opponents on the back foot. The Mountain Lions managed just four shots on goal, but scored on three of those attempts.
Wheeling Jesuit will play conference foe Shepherd on Wednesday, October 10 at Bishop Schmitt Field. Kick-off is set for 8 p.m.
