The men’s soccer team continued their successful play this season with two more shutout victories against Midway University and Brescia University, winning the games 4-0 and 3-0 respectively, giving them a record of 8-3 and 3-1 in River States Conference (RSC) play.

Ryan Daniels started in net against Midway Friday and kept out all five of Midway’s shots that made it on net. The Pioneers had 14 shots on goal.

The scoring was opened up by sophomore Wessel Rietveld when he put a shot off the post and in the net not even two minutes into the match. Freshman Mitchell Roell scored his sixth goal of the year in the 26th minute extending the lead to 2-0. Three minutes later, senior Rejep Mukhammedov scored the third goal of the game.

The Pioneers went into the half leading 3-0. It was almost 4-0 when Roell put up an individual effort to score what he thought was his second of the game, but the goal was taken back when Nathanael Van Der Walt was given his second yellow card of the game resulting in a red card.

Van Der Walt was given his first yellow card for entering the game without shin guards. He was sent off the field. He then came back into the game, but no official said he was allowed to re-enter the game. Roell’s goal was taken away and Van Der Walt was sent off again. The Pioneers would be forced to play a man down for the remainder of the game.

Point Park appealed the first yellow card as it should have only been a warning. The NAIA approved the appeal, and the card was dropped.

In the previous game, senior Josh Williams was given a red card only four minutes into the game, so the squad had a good feel on how to play with a man down.

“You just have to keep it tight and make sure everyone keeps with their individual jobs,” sophomore Marc Bentley said. “This happened last week, as well and we played well from that.”

The entire second half would be played a little more defensively since there was already a three-goal lead.

“Three up is very in our odds to just wait it out and win the game,” junior Ricardo Dip said.

Dip went on to be the only goal scorer in the second half. He scored on a penalty kick at the 75th minute making the final score 4-0.

The Pioneer then welcomed Brescia University to Highmark Stadium on Sunday, defeating them 3-0 with Juan Somoza in goal.

Senior Alan Ramos was the first on the board in the 14th minute, scoring his seventh goal of the season and first goal since Sept. 18. The goal was assisted by Roberto Whitley, who was awarded the River States Conference (RSC) Offensive Player of the Week for Sept. 24 – Oct. 1.

Two more goals were scored in the first half, one by Josh Williams in the 31st minute, and the last by Kakanou Fotie in the 43rd minute. The game ended with a 3-0 victory.

The Pioneers opened RSC play with a loss to Asbury University. Since the loss they have won three straight, outscoring opponents 15-1.

“After losing our first game I think our heads got to realizing that we need to pick it up and not fall into a negative conference record,” senior Giovoni Lebrun said. “With our first loss of the conference out of the way we can put it behind us.”

The Pioneers continue RSC play on Thursday when they travel to Indiana University East.