Streaking Wolverines continue strong run to start season
Brad Curnow | Sports Writer | @jojocornrow
Photos courtesy of James Durrant
OREM, Utah – The Utah Valley Men’s soccer scored three first half goals to defeat the University of Missouri-Kansas City 3-0 on Sunday afternoon at Clyde Field.
The Wolverines put together a complete match by outplaying the Kangaroos for the entire 90 minutes with possession and physicality.
“Today the guys had what we had expected out of them,” said Head Coach Greg Maas, “and that was a complete 90 minute performance.”
The first half was all UVU with four of five shots finding the target, and three getting by the UMKC goalkeeper.
Karson Payton started the scoring started the scoring in the eighth minute by receiving a pass from Skyler Milne in front of the Roos’ goal and shooting the ball into the back of the net. Milne later notched a goal himself to the back, right post in the 18th minute by outrunning the defense off a feed from Paul Hoffmeister.
Hoffmeister, who beat his defender and scored on a ball from Aaron Meyer, capped off the scoring.
“Paul was fantastic,” said Coach Maas regarding Hoffmeister’s effort, “He was sharp in our warmups… We knew he’d come away with something today.”
The UVU defense put a suffocating effort on every UMKC attack for the entirety of the match. The struggling Roos were unable to get together any strong effort on goal and ended the match with a single shot on target.
Even with the strong defensive effort, UVU made six attempts on the UMKC goal in the second half but came up short on all of them.
“In the game of soccer,” said Coach Maas, “often when you score a lot of goals early, they’re a little more difficult to come by in the second half.”
The Wolverines improved to 9-2-0 on the season and travel to Edinburg, Texas to take on Univsersity of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Friday, October 9th at 6 p.m. MT.
