Home sweet home for Ponies
The Mustangs continued to dominate with consecutive victories against conference teams this weekend at Westcott Field. The Ponies opened MVC play Friday with a 2-0 victory over Southwest Missouri State. The Mustang squad continued its winning ways Sunday with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Evansville.
The weekend games gave some of the younger Mustangs a chance to get used to the more physical style of play. The Bears and Aces combined to foul the host Ponies 35 times in the two games.
Assistant coach Brent Erwin believes the Mustangs were up to the challenge.
“Both teams had some big, fast guys,” Erwin said. “The defense had to figure how to stop them and the offense had to try to beat them.”
The Mustang offense also had to deal with a slight disadvantage in size. SMS used eight players that stand over 6 feet while Evansville used five players above 6 feet. Mustangs’ offensive threats were Kellan Zindel at 5 feet 8 inches tall, Collin Clark at 6 feet, Ryan Latham also at 6 feet and Duke Hashimoto at 5 feet 7 inches tall. They used quick feet and fast-paced ball movement to catch both defensive units flat footed and create scoring opportunities. Erwin was pleased with how the younger players adapted.
“The guys had to learn to play quick, learn how to use leverage and understand how to create chances,” Erwin said.
In the 23rd minute of Friday’s match, it was Zindell who stood tall to open the scoring. Zindell walked to the top of the 18-yard box and turned his back to SMS goalkeeper Matt Pickens. Pickens had possesion of the ball and was waiting for his defense to move up field before he punted the ball out of the zone. Without paying much attention to Zindell, Pickens took three steps forward and punted the ball directly off of Zindell’s back. The ball flew straight backwards and into an empty SMS net, giving the Ponies an unexpected 1-0 lead. The bizarre play knocked the feet out from under the SMS defense. Six minutes later, Diego Walsh collected the ball outside of the 18-yard box and flicked it over a charging Pickens. The goal gave the Mustangs a 2-0 lead, which they held onto until the final whistle sounded.
On Sunday, the Mustangs had to play the role of the hunter instead of hunted. In the 17th minute, Evansville defender Robbie Barker stole the ball in the Mustang defensive third of the field and beat SMU’s sophomore goalkeeper T.J. Tomasso for an early 1-0 lead.
The deficit was the first time the Mustangs trailed in a match since Sept. 6 against Stanford.
The Mustangs finally found an answer when Zindell was taken down in the penalty box in the 43rd minute. Senior captain Diego Walsh converted the penalty kick, knotting the score 1-1 heading to half.
In the second half, Hashimoto was taken down in the box and SMU was awarded another penalty kick. Walsh converted the kick, giving him nine goals on the season and giving the Mustangs a 2-1 lead. The score remained at 2-1. The victory gave the Ponies their eighth victory in a row. The win also improved the Mustangs’ record to 6-0-1 at Westcott field.
Friday, the Mustangs head North to take on Eastern Illinois. On Sunday the Mustangs travel to Peoria, Ill., to face conference rival Bradley. The Braves are currently undefeated and are ranked 10th in the nation. Erwin thinks the trip up North will be a good test.
“With both teams they just send guys at you, players keep coming and coming,” Erwin said. “Each of the teams will use close to 18 players and they all just come running.”
