Pioneers roll past Royals

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's soccer team handed Bethel University (Minn.) their first loss of the season with a 5-1 victory in Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

UW-Platteville  (2-1-1) controlled the field for the majority of the afternoon and saw five goals by five different Pioneers against the Royals (4-1-0).

The Pioneers scored the first five goals of the day with the first early on by freshman Jack Gentilli from Zachary Schafer at the 9:59 mark, but that would be the only goal of the first half.

Early in the second half, freshman Cayden Carlson extended the lead to 2-0 in the 47^th minute with an assist from Lorenzo Mancera. 

Around the 77^th minute, the Pioneers scored three goals in less than ten minutes to give Bethel a 5-0 deficit with just three minutes remaining in the game. Junior Wyatt Sedlacek scored an unassisted goal in the 77^th minute with junior Spencer Butterfield scoring four minutes later.  The third goal of the ten-minute frenzy came when junior David Regan connected with junior Addison Freybler and game the Pioneers the 5-0 lead.

With only a couple minutes remaining in the game, the Royals avoided a shutout when a foul on UW-Platteville in the 88^th minute saw Mu Ku Shi fire a shot into the upper left corner to give Bethel their only goal of the day.

Overall, the Pioneers held a 15-8 advantage on shots with 11 on frame for the Pioneers and just five on goal for the Royals.

UW-Platteville had six corner kicks to Bethel's one and senior Nate Miller faced five shots in the full 90 minutes of play.

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Pioneers return to action when they host Edgewood College at 7 p.m. in Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium.