Playing in front of family and friends, Ben Gordon scored the first goal of his collegiate career as Westmont Men’s Soccer (4-0-2) defeated Embry Riddle (3-6) in Prescott, Arizona on Friday night. Gordon, who hails from Sedona, Arizona, scored the first of the Warriors’ two goals in the forty-first minute.
“The first goal was a neatly placed through-ball from Nana (Akyen) to Ben Gordon,” reported Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “Ben snuck behind their defense and tucked it away. The run Ben made, the ball Nana played him and the finish were three nice pieces to that moment.”
The Warriors did not have to wait long to double their advantage.
“We got our second goal right before the half, off a free kick,” said Wolf. “Henry Sarmiento sent a real nice ball into the box. Doug Harrell got to it first, rose up and nodded it home. It was ironic because Henry had previously hit a poor ball on a free kick from exactly the same spot – about 35 yards out on the left-hand side of the goal, just inside the sideline. He may have lulled them into a false sense of security. But this one was right on the money. He played a perfect ball into the box.
“It was our first true away game against a home team,” noted the coach. “That made it more challenging and a good win to get. Embry-Riddle was a very physical and athletic team. We got beat up pretty good. When we walked off the field there were ice bags everywhere.
“We got a number of chances to get the third goal that would have given us a little bit of breathing space. But they kept coming and we had to fight very hard. We never could pass the ball quite well enough to resolve the pressure they were putting us under. We are not a super athletic team and Embry-Riddle went out to exploit that. We won the game inside of a three-minute period with two well executed moments. I wish we had executed better in some of the rest of the game.”
The Warriors remain in Prescott overnight to for a game tomorrow against Rocky Mountain (4-2) of Montana. In the early game of the day, Rocky Mountain suffered a 2-0 loss to #16 Azusa Pacific (6-1).
“Tomorrow is going to be a tough turn around,” acknowledged Wolf. “Rocky Mountain is a pretty tough team. Azusa (Pacific) didn’t get their second goal until late in the game. I’m hoping that they also got worn out a little bit. We got crunched very well. We’ll see what we have tomorrow.”
