Men’s Soccer erupts versus Barclay for first-ever win, 14-1

GOODWELL, Okla. – The Oklahoma Panhandle State University men’s soccer team notched its first victory in program history – doing so in a big way – by dominating Barclay College, 14-1, in a non-conference match played at Anchor D Stadium at Carl Wooten Field. The win evened the Aggies record at 1-1 in its inaugural season.

While virtually everything a start-up program does in its early competition establishes “records” frequently, some of the gaudy numbers that Panhandle State rolled up versus the Bears (0-1) may stand the test of time. Individually, the performance by freshman Manuel DePierola (West Orange, N.J./
West Orange H.S.) put his in bold letters in the Aggie men’s soccer “firsts.”

DePierola scored the first-ever goal in OPSU men’s soccer history at the 3:47 juncture of the match, assisted by Nick Terry (Scotland). But DePierola was far from through, adding two more goals by halftime – for Panhandles’ first “hat trick”. In the second half, DePierola added two more goals for a total of five goals scored in the match. He took nine total shots, scoring on all five of his shots-on-goal.

DePierola’s big night dwarfed the efforts of freshmen teammates Jeef Francisque (West Orange, N.J./West Orange H.S.), Francisco Ramirez (Cali, Colombia/Olympic Heights H.S.) and Lorenzo Amador (Guymon, Okla./Guymon H.S.), who each scored two goals. Francisque and Ramirez each also tallied an assist. Victor Bernal (Tulsa, Okla./Memorial H.S.), Terry and Francisco Garcia (Guymon, Okla./Guymon H.S.) each added single goals (Garcia also had two assists).

Panhandle’s deft ball control led to no less than six of the Aggies’ goals having double-assists credited. Junior transfer Vicente Tellos (Grao de Castellon, Spain) finished the night with five assists, while Terry and Jonathan Guzman (Guymon, Okla./Guymon H.S.) had three “helps” apiece. In all, Panhandle State had 19 assists in the match.

Some of the other stratospheric numbers hung on Barclay by Panhandle included out-shooting the Bears by a 44-3 margin, 22-2 on-goal. The Aggies took 11 corner kicks, while BC had none.

Aggie goalkeeper Winston Sappenfield (Panama City, Panama/Gig Harbor (Wash.) H.S.) had one save and one goal allowed in the 87^th minute of play. Sappenfield had one save.

“It’s good to finally get it out of the way,” Misuraca reflected on that first victory. “Better sooner than later, plus it was a good day at the field. We set the focus of scoring a goal in the first ten minutes and ended up getting three. I think the boys just came out hungry and ready to set the tone early.”

Next up for Panhandle State men is a return match versus Texas College on Thursday, September 5. The Steers blanked the Aggies, 4-0, in OPSU’s first-ever contest last Saturday.