
Jan 24, 2019
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 87th 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.