William Penn Dominates Rival Grand View in 6-1 Victory

Oskaloosa--The Statesmen men's soccer team won bragging rights over its rival as it ran through Grand View 6-1 in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Tuesday. 

In the victory, #6 WPU (11-0-1, 5-0 Heart) set a program record for the most goals scored in its head-to-head series against the Vikings (3-5-4, 0-3-2 Heart).  It was also the largest margin of victory ever for the Statesmen over Grand View.

William Penn, which dominated despite only outshooting GVU 19-10, took an early lead when Leighton Jameson (Jr., Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Psychology) passed the ball to Hugo Cornish (So., Sydney, Australia, Business Management), who slotted it into the back of the net at the 6:26 mark.

Just two minutes later, Cornish launched a 25-yard kick past the goalkeeper off a pass from Miguel Menendez (Fr., Oviedo, Spain, Wellness and Recreation).

The Statesmen were then slowed for the remainder of the period, but opened up the latter half with a flurry of goals.  Only 48 seconds into the second stanza, Menendez added a goal himself after Connor O'Reilly (Sr., Letterkenny, Ireland, General Accounting) and Matias Meijede (Grad., Brunete, Spain, Master's of Organizational Leadership) got the ball past the Viking defenders.

Off a kick from Cornish, John-Joe Mullane (Jr., Kent, England) then headed the ball into the net in the 48th minute to record his first goal of the night to push the lead to 4-0.

Nine minutes later, Menendez sent a corner kick to Mullane, who recorded his second header goal of the match at the 56:51 mark.

The navy and gold's defense unfortunately fell short of a clean sheet when the Vikings scored in the 68th minute, but WPU avenged the goal when Jaime Rozalen (So., Valencia, Spain, Business Management) passed the ball to Luigi Mongan (Sr., Manchester, England, Business Management), who snuck past the defenders for a tally in the 74th minute.

With the game well in hand, WPU's bench was cleared with 27 players contributing to the action and 11 recording a shot.

Cornish led the navy and gold with four shots, while Mullane recorded three.  Menendez, Moses Magens (Grad., Elmshorn, Germany, Master's of Sport Management), and Albert Feixas (Fr., Santa Coloma de Farners, Spain, Exercise Science) tallied two attempts apiece as well.

In a rivalry normally consumed by physical play, the contest surprisingly only featured two yellow cards.

"We came out fired up," Head Coach Simon Brown said.  "We knew we were the only teams playing tonight, and everyone was watching us.  Our message was that we are here and ready to play this year."

Next Up: William Penn plays Missouri Valley at Drost Field in Oskaloosa Saturday in Heart action at 1:30 p.m.