Statesmen Thump Eagles 4-1, Beat CMU for First Time Since 2014

Oskaloosa--The William Penn men's soccer team snapped a long losing streak in a head-to-head series and avenged a 2022 tournament loss as it defeated Central Methodist 4-1 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Wednesday.

#14 WPU (7-1-4, 2-0-3 Heart) defeated the Eagles for the first time since 2014, snapping a streak of 10 games without a win (0-9-1 during that stretch).  The victory also avenges last year's 4-0 setback to CMU (4-5-2, 1-3-1 Heart) in the Heart Finals.

The hosts were in control for much of the evening, including outshooting Central Methodist 18-5 (9-4 shots on goal).

Despite numerous early opportunities, the Statesmen did not get on the board until the 23rd minute.  Joan Torres (So., Canillo, Andorra, Sports Management) started the scoring play by chipping a free kick into the box to Luigi Mongan (Jr., Manchester, England, Business Management) who headed it back to Alessandro Bedei (Jr., Cesena, Italy, Business Management).  Bedei then located the pass and slipped it past CMU's goalkeeper where Edan Sears (Jr., Telford, England, Sports Management) was waiting for an empty-net score at the 22:48 juncture.

Just over two minutes later, Mongan and Sears played a part in another goal.  A throw-in by Lukas Koch (Sr., Moers, Germany, Master's of Sports Management) was flicked backwards to the far post by Sears and Mongan finished off the pass to put the navy and gold on top 2-0.  Mongan, who was one of six players to post multiple shots on Wednesday, guided the Statesmen with five attempts.

The Eagles trimmed the deficit to one in the 32nd and the 2-1 score remained until the midway point of the second stanza.

Mattijs McLaughlin (Fr., Sassenheim, Netherlands, Business Management) then got in on the action as he put away a cross from Miguel Menendez (Fr., Oveido, Spain, Wellness and Recreation) in the 78th minute.

Sears eventually closed out the scoring with a penalty kick score with 5:41 left in regulation.  The junior earned the PK chance when Hugo Cornish (Fr., Sydney, Australia, Business Management) was taken down in the box.

Sean Bohan (Jr., Dublin, Ireland, Business Management) posted three saves in the victory.

"I am really happy with tonight's result," Head Coach Simon Brown said.  "This was a dominant performance against a quality CMU team with a lot of great players.  We showed real intent from the start and mixed in our set pieces to show how dangerous we are with them.  We took the game to them from start to finish.  Now, we have a short bit of time to get ready for Benedictine which is flying high in conference right now."

Next Up: William Penn travels to Atchison, Kan. Saturday to face Benedictine in Heart play at 4:30 p.m.