Beaver rallies past Westmoreland County CC, 10-2
By: Matylda Zamudio
BEAVER FALLS, Pa.—The Penn State Beaver men's soccer team had its most dominant performance of the season against visitor Westmoreland County Community College, securing a 10-2 win to extend the team's winning streak to five games.
In the first period, Westmoreland County CC struck first with an early goal just shy of the seven-minute mark, but freshman Mishael Garcia (Los Angeles/Alexander Hamilton) helped tie it up three minutes later with Beaver's first scored goal on an assist by freshman Jake Ross (Munhall/Steel Valley). Two seconds later, Ross then took a fed from sophomore Danylo Yakymov (Kiev/Grand Private Lyceum) and scored a second goal for the Lions, and the two paired up again for a third Beaver goal one minute later (3-1). At the 12th minute, Yakymov then struck a goal of his own after connecting on a pass by sophomore Williams Cruz (Springfield/Robert E. Lee) to put Westmoreland County CC in a 4-1 deficit. In the reaming minutes of the first, Westmoreland County CC wasn't able to slow down Beaver's offensive momentum and gave up three more goals to the Lions, who headed into the second half with a 7-2 advantage.
In the second period, Ross got Beaver on the scoreboard first after he converted a pass by senior Romaine Thompson (Philadelphia/Penn Wood) five minutes in (8-1). Westmoreland County CC scored a goal at the 63rd minute to cut theLion's lead to 6 points, but Beaver did a good job of maintaining possession of the ball for the remaining minutes of the game and put up two more goals to take a 10-2 win for the day.
Ross led the way for Beaver, where he scored three goals on four shots with four on goal, followed by Yakymov, who scored two goals on six shots with five on goal, and Garcia finished with two goals on five shots with three on goal. Senior Cory Mueller (Ambridge), senior John Kazmierczyk (Conway/Quigley) and freshman Grigorios Papachristos (Athens/Valley Christian) each contributed one goal apiece.
At the net, freshman Julian Hauff (Frederick/Governor Thomas Johnson) served as the goalie for the 45 minutes and had one save against the three SOG he faced. Saldivar, who goaltended for 19:07 minutes, had two saves against the two SOG he faced.
Beaver outshot Westmoreland County CC 48-8 and 9-4 on corner kicks.
After today's win, Beaver improves to 5-3 overall and 2-0 in the PSUAC conference standings. The Lions will be back at home for Saturday's PSUAC conference bout, where the men will face off against Penn State Hazleton. The game is slated for 2 p.m.