The No. 21 ranked team in this week’s National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the Pioneers secured a perfect 4-0 on the road against Shawnee State (Oh.) this past Saturday.

Senior Lucas Silva started off just 32 seconds after kickoff with a penalty kick and not long after that an assist from Max Flick.    

Silva added another goal in the second half of the game to make it 3-1. The final goal was scored by sophomore Rejep Mukhammedov in his first career goal making the final score 4-1.

The Pioneers had an advantage in shots 17-15 against Shawnee State. Point Park goalkeeper junior Zach Borzovoy made five saves and only gave up one goal in the 90 minute game.

Sao Paulo, Brazil native Silva now has 11 goals in the year so far, leading the team. Silva is among the NAIA leaders with 1.22 goals per game.

“It feels great when you dedicate yourself to something and you see the results,” said Silva. “But as I always say it’s a team effort, my job as a forward is to score goals but I wouldn’t be able to if the goalkeeper didn’t save a shot, if the defense didn’t work hard and if the midfield didn’t get the ball to me so its all about unity We need to keep working harder everyday, we are definitely not even close to being done soon, this is all just starting.”

The Pioneers are now going into a busy stretch with five games in eight days. They will host Penn State University-Beaver on Monday and Washington and Jefferson on Wednesday.  They will then hit the road to St. Catherine (Ky.) and Brescia (Ky.) on Oct 17-18.

Captain junior Jonty Loukes believes the team has the right focus to get the job done.        

“The team is playing with confidence and desire to win every game we play in the field no matter who [we] play,” said Loukes. “We are half way through the season but everyone knows that we cannot afford to take our foot off the pedal."