Men’s soccer take care of Wildcats, force tie with Mississippi College

Patriots midfiedler Jared Taylor (#13) battles Wildcat Luke Brewer for position during the Patriots 8-0 victory over Louisiana College. Photo by Clay Ihlo.

BULLARD - An exasperated sigh of relief could be heard from Herrington Field at Brook Hill, as the Patriot men’s soccer team managed to tally a mark in the win column for the season and conference with their 7-0 victory over the Louisiana College Wildcats. Both Thursday and Saturday’s games were moved to Herrington Field on the Brook Hill campus in Bullard. Citizen’s 1st Bank-Perkins Soccer Complex at UT-Tyler was deemed unplayable because of recent rain. The Patriots tied Mississippi College 1-1 on Thursday night.

The Patriots had trouble in their first four games of the season, but that was not the case against the Wildcats. A little more than two minutes were played before Brad Bullock found Jason Urbaniak in the center of the penalty box to score on a header.

From there the Patriots never took their foot off the gas pedal.  Freshman Chris Powell gave the Wildcats’ goalkeeper, Joe Saverino, a flurry of shots to contend with, before partnering with Bullock to net one in the 6th minute of play. After the second goal, Patriot attackers Ryan Ewing, Tony Guillen, Colin Clark, and Carlos Reyes managed to join in the fun, introducing themselves to the Wildcat defenders and their goalie.

After a couple of saves and shots that rattled the goal posts, Reyes managed to find Clark to score for the Patriots. Amid the Patriots barrage of offense, the Wildcats managed to take a weak shot attempt at the goal of Mark Oliphant, who was a little more than a spectator as the Wildcats could barely pass midfield before chasing the ball the other way.

The Patriots ended the half with a Reyes goal to go up 4-0. The bad thing for the Wildcats was the fact that they were playing a Patriots team who had only scored once in their previous four games, and were looking to make up for lost time.

As Justin Nesmith and Chase Clissold anchored the defense, Joseph Lokang took the steering wheel of the offense in the second half, as he led the charge of the Patriot’s offense. This time, the Wildcats thwarted the attackers until Urbaniak threw a long ball into the penalty box that found Powell for the score in the 70th minute of play.

The Patriots managed to keep possession of the ball for a vast majority of the game, as the Wildcats could barely string two passes together to get across midfield. Sophomore Forrest Herndon did not help the Wildcats’ case either, as Justin Nesmith found Herndon in stride in the penalty box where he sent a streaking ball right past the keeper for his first goal of the season.

Two minutes later, Nesmith set Guillen up with a one-two pass that Guillen scored on from point blank range, and left Wildcat defenders dazed and confused for the final score of the game. Six different Patriots found the back of the net for the first time this season. The Patriots go into their third conference game against Hardin-Simmons in Abilene next Friday.