Men’s soccer edges John Wesley for first win

HIGH POINT — The St. Andrews men’s soccer team edged NCCAA foe John Wesley University 4-3 on the road Saturday in High Point to pick up their first win of the season.

Scoring goals for the Knights were midfielder Ruben Vaca, senior midfielder Manu Escalera, and junior midfielder Guilherme Soares. Vaca scored the first and third goals for the Knights while he assisted on Escalera’s goal as well for a big five-point afternoon. Assisting on the goals were freshman forward Bliss Obodumu, midfielder Adams Canales and senior Ricardo Da Silva.

St. Andrews went into the break with the Lions tied at one, but then outscored them 3-2 in the second half for the win.

The Kngihts improves to 1-2 on the year while John Wesley University falls to 1-3 overall.

St. Andrews will next be in action on Friday when they finally return home to host NAIA foe Brewton-Parker College in their home opener at 3:30 p.m.

Women’s cross country finishes 5th at Columbia

COLUMBIA, S.C.- The St. Andrews University men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Palmetto State Cross Country 5K Festival last Saturday and came away with some quality individual finishes.

The women came away with a 5th place finish out of eight teams in the 5K with 128 points. The men did not have a team score as only four individual runners ran in the 5K meet. Div. III Methodist University won the men’s meet over Div. II Newberry.

Freshman Hannah Adams led the way for the Lady Knights finishing second overall with a time of 20:44 — just 35 seconds off the winning time posted by a runner from Methodist. Senior Hannah Biddle ran a good time to finish ninth with a time of 22:36. Junior Grace Matonis crossed the finish line in 38th place with a time of 25:58.

Junior Kaitlyn Maddox finished in 45th place at 26:56 before junior Nina Havelka finished in 29:33 and in 55th place out of 65 runners.

Leading the men for St. Andrews and fourth overall was senior Zack Castor with a time of 17:34 while junior Eduardo Andrade came in 11th with a time of 17:52 for another quality finish. Coming in next was freshman Austin Hunt in 28th place with a time of 19:28 while senior Franco Portillo was 39th with a time of 21:38.

The cross country teams will next be competing on Sept. 15 at the Adidas Challenge at N.C. State University at Wake Med Park in Cary at 5 p.m.

Women’s soccer falls to Brevard

LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews University women’s soccer team dropped their season opener 3-0 to Div. III foe Brevard College last Saturday.

Brevard scored their first goal in the 38th minute beating a diving St. Andrews keeper, senior Rachel Widdicks, to take a 1-0 before adding another goal just minutes later. Brevard led 2-0 at the break.

Brevard added a final goal in the 80th minute to take the game 3-0. St. Andrews had a few good chances in the opening minutes putting three shots on net and attempting five overall, but were stymied for the most part in the second half.

Brevard out shot the Knights 18-12 overall and 12-7 in the second half while senior midfielder Arianna Brown and junior forward Madi Castro led the Lady Knights in shots with Brown attempted four and two on goal and Castro attempted three. Widdicks finished with seven saves on 10 shots on goal.

St. Andrews, now 0-1, will next remain home to face a Div. III opponent in Methodist University (0-2) on Sept. 13 at 4 p.m.

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By Troy Baranik

SAU Sports Information Director