photo by Liz Berie
Freshman Defender Josh Williams wins the ball from a Washington & Jefferson player during Point Park’s Senior Night game on Oct. 15. The Pioneers dominated with a 4-0 win.
photo by Liz Berie
Goalkeeper Derrik Whiten punts the ball during Point Park’s winning game against
Washington & Jefferson on Oct. 15. Whiten played the entire 90 minutes and finished the game with a clean sheet.
The men’s soccer team crushed the competition this past week, getting its seventh consecutive win after playing five games in eight days.
The games started off on Oct. 13 against Penn State-Beaver in a non-conference game.
The Pioneers beat out Penn State with a final score of 10-0.
Many of the players got their chance to score and it was sophomore defender Paul Carr who lead the way with three goals. Junior forward Lucas Godinho, senior captain Jonty Loukes, senior Lucas Silva, senior Gabriel Colombo, junior Marius Seager and senior Khaled Zena all made goals in the game.
Point Park led in shots with 36-5 and 15-2 in corner kicks. Derrik Whiten played the whole 90 minutes as the keeper and picked up the shutout with two saves.
“Penn State was clearly more inferior than us technically and physically,” Godinho said. “However, this winning streak has proved that we not only have a good team, but a solid group where a player can substitute and still keep the same level of soccer on the field.”
Also in the past week, the Pioneers were ranked in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Men’s Soccer Top 25 poll as No. 22.
The second game for the Pioneers was on Wednesday night against Washington and Jefferson, a 4-0 victory.
It was also senior night for Point Park, and all seven seniors – Zena, Silva, Loukes, Colombo, Jose Vaccarello, Zach Fischer, and Romida Nanko started. Three seniors scored and junior Derrik Whiten posted another shutout for the game.
One of the top 10 NAIA leading scorers, Silva started the game and within 23 minutes of starting, scored two goals. Loukes and Colombo made the other two shots to finish off the game.
The Pioneers then moved to an away game against St. Catharine on Friday, continuing their streak in a 4-2 victory.
The game started off with one less man when defender Matt Buckley received a red card in the eighteenth minute. This didn’t stop the Pioneers by still keeping a 3-1 lead by halftime.
Silva scored two of those goals, which were assisted by Godinho, and also scored a third goal in the eighty-six minute.
The Pioneers then followed with their next away game against Brescia with a shutout a 7-0 Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) victory.
This made the seventh win in a row for Point Park, which also maintained their first place spot in the KIAC.
Silva, junior Alain Smit, junior Dominic Canello, sophomore Rejep Mukhammedov and Zena all scored for the Pioneers.
Sao Paulo, Brazil native Silva has increased his goal total to 21 this season. This ties Chris Heh for the Point Park single season goals record of 21 set in 1998. Silva has had 16 goals in his last six games.
“All I wanted was to have a great season this year but I confess, I would do anything to help winning,” Silva said. “Fill up the water bottles or help pump air into the balls, but this year I’ve been helping by scoring goals. I’m really happy I got the chance to get into Point Park history, that means a lot to me.”
The Pioneers are 11-2, 3-0 KIAC. They will continue on road games for the rest of the season.
“A seven [game] win streak is good but ten is better,” Silva said, “We can’t stop now, [we] need to keep the good momentum going and win all the games left,” Silva said.
