SAN ANTONIO, TX - Trinity University Men's Soccer (3-2-2) put on a dominant display on Sunday afternoon at
Paul McGinlay Field, cruising past Hardin-Simmons (1-5) 4-0, leaving the outcome never in doubt.
From the opening whistle, this one had a different feel than Trinity's recent results. The Tigers controlled the ball, dictated the tempo, and never really left first gear the entire afternoon, pinning Hardin-Simmons back for long stretches and racking up 13 corner kicks to the Cowboys none.
The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute off a set piece.
Alex Baltov (Shreveport, Louisiana / Caddo Parish Magnet) whipped in a corner kick that found the head of
Landon Ortega San Antonio, Texas / Central Catholic), who nodded it down into a dangerous area where the Tigers starting striker
Eduardo Parra (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma / Casady School) was waiting in the right spot to smash the ball home and open the scoring.
Trinity didn't wait long to double the lead. Just five minutes later, Ortega picked up the ball on the left wing and drove at the fullback before cutting it onto his left foot and whipping a delicious ball across the face of goal. Parra was lurking again, and though the ball took an awkward bounce in front of him, he handled it well, heading it into the bottom right corner for his second of the afternoon, and his third this season.
The Tigers carried that control the rest of the half, keeping Hardin-Simmons pinned in their own end and taking a 2-0 lead and an 11-1 shot advantage into the break.
Trinity's bench turned over for the second half, with freshmen
Dev Ghedia (London, England / St. James) and
Lorcan Mulligan (London, England / West London Free School) making their Tigers debuts. The lineup change did nothing to slow the pace. In the 63rd minute, Ghedia combined on a give-and-go with
Oliver Burdick (Houston, Texas / Stratford) at the top of the box, took a single touch, and lasered a shot through a crowd of Hardin-Simmons defenders and into the left side of the net. A goal that took less than 20 minutes of his Trinity career to arrive.
The Tigers put a bow on the result in the 83rd minute.
Mateo Machado (Mexico City, Mexico / Reagan) sprayed a long ball from deep to right back
Matt Lim (Davao City, Philippines / Montverde Academy (Fla.)), who laid off a delicate first-time pass through two defenders and into the path of a streaking Burdick. Burdick used his pace to take one touch into the box before finishing across the goalkeeper and into the bottom left corner for the first goal of his Trinity career.
Defensively, Hardin-Simmons managed just a single shot on target across the full 90 minutes, with goalkeepers McPherson and Sanchez combining for eight saves to keep the deficit from ballooning further. On the other end, Trinity's trio of keepers,
Luis Yunta (Madrid, Spain / Vermont Academy (Vt.)),
Jack Madsen (Highland Park, Texas / Highland Park), and
Austin Quitta (San Antonio, Texas / Brennan), were rarely tested, needed just one save between them, and preserved the shutout.
By the final whistle, the numbers told the story of a complete Trinity performance. A 29-1 edge in shots, 12-0 in shots on goal, and 13-0 in corner kicks. The 4-0 win moves the Tigers to 3-2-2 on the season, while Hardin-Simmons falls to 1-5.
Up Next
The Trinity Men's Soccer team will remain at home as they match up with UC-Santa Cruz on Friday, September 25th at 7:00 p.m. Then less than 48 hours later, they will face off against local rivals Concordia University on Sunday, September 27th at 6:00 p.m.
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