The Case Western Reserve University men’s soccer team took down Westminster College 6-0. The win extends the Spartans three-game winning streak, giving the squad momentum rolling into the final three games of the season. With emotions high on Senior Night, the elder Spartans dominated Westminster during their last game at Case field by scoring five of the six total goals. This win puts the Spartans at an impressive overall 9-4-3 as they round out the season with three final UAA conference games and a 2-2 conference record.
The first half was dominated by the CWRU offense, as they outshot Westminster 11-1. A number of players took their turns shooting on the Westminster goalkeeper Mike Codita, and after twenty minutes of play, sophomore Eric Erb found the back of the net on a cross from junior Niro Wimalsena. The rest of the half played out with a lot of CWRU offensive action, but no completions, and the score remained 1-0.
From the first minutes of the second half, the upperclassman stole the show. Senior Jordan Fox sparked the movement after scoring a header off a free kick. Within ten minutes, Senior Phil Debauche recorded CWRU’s third goal of the game.
The CWRU offense was relentless and did not give Westminster’s keeper a break. In the 75th minute, senior Aaron Lucas hit a straight shot past the Westminster keeper from 15 yards out and recorded his first goal of the season.
Behind by four goals, Westminster decided to put in second-string goalie Adam Kephart in hopes of creating a defensive presence of the field. Just three minutes later in the 78th Debauche added his second goal of the night off a crossed ball 5 yards out. Both fellow seniors Mikey Schmid and Lucas assisted Debauce.
With an assist to his name Schmid move to continue to add to the Spartans tally. In the last two minutes of the game, Schmid would be assisted by Lucas to score the final goal of the game putting the Spartans on top 6-0. The goal came off a free kick following a yellow card that was awarded by Westminster’s Jarred Smeltzer.
The CWRU men’s soccer senior night showed to be successful as the Spartans defeated Westminster in their highest scoring game of the season. This win gives the Spartans a three game winning streak, which they hope to take further into their three final games of the season.
The Spartans are currently third in the UAA conference, which is incredibly noteworthy, as they did not have one UAA victory last season. The Spartans will face back-to-back games this Halloween weekend against Carnegie Mellon University and Emory University on Friday and Saturday, respectively.