Daniel Johnsen had a hat trick, and Westmont scored four goals in a span of less than six and one-half minutes in a 7-0 soccer rout over Embry-Riddle of Arizona on Saturday at The Master’s College in Newhall.
It marks only the ninth time in team history that a player has scored three or more goals in a game.
“DJ led so well today – verbally and in his approach to the game,” noted Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “When he got chances, he was clinical in front of goal. None of his goals were easy finishes. He was in a great frame of mind and played beautifully. It was a captain’s performance from him. He gets the man of the match.
The Warriors shot the ball 29 times – the most in ten years – placing 19 of those shots on goal. Embry Riddle was limited to eight shots, three of which were on goal.
“It was a very interesting game in that the conditions were very difficult and you weren’t sure how the teams were going to approach the game,” said Wolf of playing on artificial turf in triple-digit temperatures. “(Embry-Riddle) dropped back defensively in the first half and let us have the ball in our half of the field. The only thing we could really do was play balls over the top. There wasn’t much room to play in the midfield.”
In the 31st minute, Westmont’s Jonny Yeeles provided what turned out to be the game winner and the only goal of the first half.”
In the 52nd minute, Johnsen scored an unassisted goal to put the Warriors up 2-0. Six minutes later, the Warriors held a 5-0 lead with two more goals from Johnsen and one from Wilton Quintero.
“When we started running wild, they got discouraged,” said Wolf. “While they were getting discouraged, we were getting energized, even the guys that hadn’t yet played any college soccer wanted to get in on the act. The needle just swung completely to us.”
Before the game came to an end, the Warriors tacked on two more goals. Cody Howen scored in the 77th minute to make it a 6-0 game. Austin Lack scored for the second day in a row; completing the scoring in the 85th minute
