Box Score MARSHALL, Texas – Three first half goals was all the East Texas Baptist University men's soccer team would need to secure a victory over Howard Payne University 3-1. ETBU was held scoreless in the second half, and HPU scored a goal early in the second half to make things interesting, but the Yellow Jackets would not get any closer to ETBU's lead.
Joel Ramirez got things going for ETBU in the 11th minute with his first career goal with an assist from Dominic Wood. Late in the first half, ETBU's Christian Galvan made both of his shots count as he contributed two goals, the first of his career, to extend the lead to 3-0. Joseph Bruner assised Galvan's second goal in the 44th minute. Both Wood and Bruner got their first career asissts for ETBU.
HPU scored in the 50th minute on a goal from Tracer Moore, but HPU would not score for the rest of the match and ETBU raised their season record to 4-1. This game was not counted as an American Southwest Conference match for both ETBU and HPU.
Bryant Botello earned his third win of the season in the net for ETBU. HPU led the game with 16 shots, nine on goal, but it was ETBU who made their nine shots count as three of their five on target found the back of the net.
Head coach Chris Crawford was pleased with today's performance, “Today was a good day for our guys. They responded this week in practice and executed what we have been hitting on all week. Today was a team effort and the guys played hard for each other. Now we rest, recover, and raise the bar for the rest of the season.”
ETBU will return to action this Saturday with a home match against Rhodes College at 3:00 p.m. at Cornish Field.
