DENVER – The [15/11] University of Denver men's soccer team defeated Southern Indiana 6-0 in Summit League action on Wednesday night at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
JACK AND SHEILA WEINBERG HEAD MEN'S SOCCER COACH JAMIE FRANKS:
"I think something finally clicked with our final decisions. We'd have been more worried if we weren't creating enough chances in games all season. A little bit of it came down to bad luck, but a lot of it was us needing to make a collective decision about our mentality in the attacking third, and I thought tonight we were all on the same page.
"We're never ones to make excuses, but this 10-day layoff will be really important for our group. When you see how hard the schedule has been and how hard it is to travel, consistently play on the road and to be out of comfort zones and routines, to have these 10 days to refocus ourselves, redefine our roles and ultimately get better is mightily important. Even back in the winter we thought we'd have a good team this year because of our depth and our internal competition, and we have a lot of guys playing well right now, which makes our jobs as coaches difficult, but that's exactly where we want to be.
SIGNIFICANT STATS:
· Denver is now 43-7-8 in Summit League regular season play since joining the league in 2013.
· Ian Smith's opener was the 14th fastest goal to start a match in Denver's Division I history (2:34).
· Smith's first-career brace gave Denver its first multi-goal scorer of the season. Trevor Wright added a brace of his own in the second half.
· Denver scored four goals in a half (first) for the first time since Andre Shinyashiki scored four by himself in the second half of a 4-3 win at Omaha in 2018.
· The Pioneers scored six goals in a game for the first time since the 2012 season when Denver defeated Houston Baptist 6-0 on Oct. 12, 2012.
· Denver's 29 shots were its most in a game since taking 34 attempts in a 3-1 win at Purdue Fort Wayne on November 9, 2019.
· The Pios played a season-high 22 players on Wednesday.
· Sam Bassett extended his team-high goals tally to six.
· Denver's two second-half goals came 1:55 apart, the 20th-fastest consecutive goals in Denver's Division I history.
KEY MOMENTS:
3' Denver got just the early start it was looking for on Wednesday night to take an early 1-0 lead. Ronan Wynne lofted a ball to Sam Bassett at the top of the box. Bassett won the header to Ian Smith, who struck his third goal of the season in from three yards left of the penalty spot.
17' Denver doubled its advantage from the penalty spot when Bassett converted his third penalty of the year. Ben Smith played Jake Mecham in behind, leaving the sliding defender no choice but to take down the driving outside back.
26' The Pioneers got a third in the first half when Ian Smith completed his brace with a header from inside the six-yard box. Wynne was involved again in the build up, playing the cross-field ball to the back-post run of Smith.
39' DU played a seven-second game of pinball off its second corner kick of the night before Trevor Wright's second attempt in a four-shot sequence found the back of the net for Denver's fourth goal of the opening half. Lukas Fisher played the run of Wright just outside the six-yard box, but Wright's initial attempt was saved. Holger Olsson got a shot off the rebound that was cleared off the line by a defender and Jason Belloli's attempt off that rebound was then saved by the keeper. Wright headed home Belloli's rebound to get Denver's fourth of the night.
Halftime
60' Belloli made it 5-0, dunking home a Lukas Fisher corner kick for his second goal of the 2022 campaign.
62' Wright got his second 1:55 later to make it 6-0. Kengo Ohira combined with Dylan Akau down the Denver right before Akau crossed it to the run of Wright in the center of the area to complete the centerback's brace.
Fulltime
WHAT'S NEXT:
Denver will be back in action on October 29 when the Pioneers head to Eastern Illinois. Kickoff is set for 10 a.m. MT on Saturday, October 29 in Charleston, Ill.
TICKETS:
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