Tricky tricky tricky

It was only a matter of time before the Mustang offense took shape and came alive. Unfortunate-ly for the Horned Frog defense, the Ponies chose Friday night to do so. The Mustangs netted eight goals in their 8-1 cakewalk over visiting TCU at Westcott Field.

Captain Diego Walsh was pleased with the result.

“A game like this is good for the team,” Walsh said. “Hopefully this will put the offense on a roll.”

The Mustangs dominated the first half of play. The ball was in the Horned Frog defensive third for the majority of the half. When TCU did manage to clear the ball, the defensive trio of Ross Spencer, Ugo Ihemelu and Kevin Friedland was patiently waiting. Time after time the Mustang defense held its ground, retained possession and started the counter attack.

The Ponies outshot the Horned Frogs 12-2 in the first half with two of the Mustang’s shots finding the back of the net. In the 23rd minute Duke Hashimoto opened the scoring when he found a loose ball in the TCU penalty box and drove the ball through the hands of the Horned Frog goalkeeper. Ten minutes before half Ryan Latham scored the first of his two goals giving the Mustangs a 2-0 heading to the break.

In the second half, TCU jumped all over the Mustang defense and closed the gap to one. Andrew Porteous gathered a deflected pass at the top of the 18-yard box and bent the ball into the corner of the net. Ten minutes later TCU defender Joe Fields made a hard tackle from behind and was awarded a red card for his efforts. The foul left the Horned Frogs a man down for the remainder of the match. Diego Walsh converted the penalty kick giving the Mustangs a 3-1 lead and opening up the offensive floodgates.

Walsh followed his penalty kick with his second goal of the match in the 51st minute and then scored his third goal, completing the hat-trick, in the 53rd minute. Not to be outdone, Latham scored his second goal of the contest just three minutes after Walsh’s accomplishment. Senior defender Ryan Kenyon scored his first collegiate goal in the 66th minute. Tom Doolan rounded out the scoring with the final goal coming off a penalty kick in the 80th minute. The ejection turned out to be the turning point in the match and the Mustangs never looked back on their way to an 8-1 victory.

Head coach Schellas Hyndman used the match as a chance to play reserves.

“It was a good chance for us to get some players into the game for a decent amount of playing time,” Hyndman said.