EUREKA, Ill. - Webster University men's soccer posted a season best in goals here Saturday afternoon in its 7-0 win against Eureka College in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play at Traister Field.
With the win, Webster improves to 7-2-1 overall and 1-0-0 in the SLIAC, while Eureka falls to 2-4-1 overall and 0-1-0 in the league. Saturday's match was the SLIAC opener for both teams.
The seven goals are tied for 17th most in a match in school history and the most goals scored by Webster in a match since tallying eight goals against Eureka in 2017.
For the match, Webster held a 29-3 edge in shots, including a 16-0 edge in shots on goal in posting its second straight win and earning its second straight win in its league opener. The Gorloks took 11 shots in the first half and 18 shots in the second half.
Webster got the scoring started with senior midfielder Juan Garcia (St.Charles, Mo./Duchesne) scoring his second goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 20th minute. Garcia would add a second goal in the 47th minute to make it 3-0 Webster and sophomore midfielder Isaac Pearson (St. Louis, Mo./Maplewood-Richmond Heights) picked up the assist on Garca's second goal.
Sophomore forward Aamahn Murvin (Sahuarita, Ariz./Walden Grove) scored his fourth goal of the season just three minutes after Garcia to give the Gorloks a 2-0 lead.
Sophomore midfielder Henok Moges (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) scored his second goal of the season to put Webster up 4-0 in the 64th minute with the assist coming from sophomore midfielder Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo).
Freshman forward Jarret Gabriele (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) made it 5-0 in the 77th minute as junior forward Ben Aziz (Paris, France/Marquette) assisted on the Gabriele goal and then Aziz finished off the scoring for Webster with a penalty kick goal in the 83rd minute and he added another goal about two minutes later to make it 7-0 Webster off of the assist from junior midfielder Valentyn Trehub (Kiev, Ukraine/Webster Vienna).
Aziz finished the match with five shots, while Gabriele, Garcia, Murvin and Kohler each had three shots in the win. Overall, 13 different Gorloks recorded a shot on the day.
Sophomore goalkeeper Matt Coffey (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) moved his record to 4-0-1 on the season and he started in goal and played the first 63-plus minutes. Freshman Jacob Klevorn (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) made his collegiate debut and played the final 27-plus minutes of the match. Neither Coffey nor Klevorn faced any shots on goal in Saturday's match.
Webster's back-end defenders including senior Justin Schmidt (St. Louis, Mo./Metro), junior Cameron Killian (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh), sophomore Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) and freshman Tavis Cameron (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South) helped out defensively as allowed just three shots in the game and posted their fourth shutout of the season.
Michael Hansen took two of the Red Devils' three shots, while Moises Aldana allowed two goals while making four saves and picked up a yellow card in net for Eureka. Fabian Saldana took over in the second half and allowed five goals, while making five saves for the Red Devils.
Webster will return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 9 as they open their SLIAC home schedule at 5 p.m. against Iowa Wesleyan at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo.
