Two goals and an assist by senior Dominic Furness helped lead the No. 23-ranked West Texas A&M men’s soccer team to a 3-1 win over visiting University of the Southwest (N.M.) Tuesday evening at The Pitch. With the win, the Buffaloes improved to 6-1-1 on the year, while USW fell to 1-2.
The Buffs broke open the scoring in the 36th minute as senior Dominic Furness found the back of the net for the team-leading 10th time this season as sophomore Wayne Bruton forced a turnover at the 35. He collected the ball and passed to sophomore Martin Fuentes collected the ball and fired to the corner to senior Abel Olivas who crossed to a wide-open Furness for the score.
Just over a minute later, Furness was on the receiving end of a great long pass from senior Colin Bjostad to sophomore Daniel Angloher who crossed to Furness for the open-net score and a 2-0 lead at the 36:49 mark into the match.
The Buffs outshot USW 11-1 in the opening half and held a 3-0 lead in shots on goal. WT had a 5-0 lead in corner kicks.
WT came out in the second half and added its third goal as Fuentes scored his first goal of the season on an assist from Furness at the 62:00 mark.
The Mustangs broke through as Chris Ka’auku’u fired a shot from about 40-yards out to the upper right corner for a score at the 63:32 mark. From there, USW began pressuring more and found some opportunities as it had eight, second half shots and four shots on goal in the half.
“Overall we won and we are happy with the chances we had,” head coach Butch Lauffer said. “They really only had 2-3 chances, but give the kid credit, it was a great ball he struck and it was a good goal he scored. They put us under pressure in the second half and it’s good to deal with those adversities and it was a bending, but we didn’t break.”
For the match, Furness led the way for WT with eight shots, five on goal, two goals and an assist. The Buffs outshot USW 24-9 and 13-4 in shots on goal, while holding an 8-1 lead in corner kicks. USW goalkeeper Isaac Wilkins came up with some big saves in the second half as he had 10 for the match.
WT now has a nine-day break as it will return to action Sept. 27 at Eastern New Mexico in Lone Star Conference play. USW beat ENMU 3-1 earlier this season.
“We’re going to have a couple of days off now to get some rest as we have played a lot of matches in a short period of time,” Lauffer said. “We are going to come back on Friday and address and work on a few things.”
