The No. 8-ranked Kenyon College men’s soccer team wasted little time Saturday afternoon in gaining a lead, expanding it and rolling to a 7-0 road win over the Fighting Muskies of Muskingum University.
The victory ran Kenyon’s record to a perfect 6-0 and improved the team’s goals per game average to 4.17, which is a top-10 mark among all NCAA Division III teams. On the other side of things, the shutout was the Kenyon defense’s third in a row. The unit has not allowed a goal in its last 292 minutes of play.
The Owls’ first goal found the back of the net just 62 seconds from the start. A pass from Alex Ramirez found the feet of Scott Upton, who was parked at the top of the box. With his back to the goal, Upton spun around a defender and chipped the ball over the Muskingum goalkeeper’s head.
Upton played a role in the next goal, too, which was scored a little more than 6 minutes after the first. This time, Upton worked the left side and sent in a crossing pass. The ball went untouched through a bunch of traffic and got to Mac Nardiello-Smith, who booted it home from just right of center.
That quick 2-0 start doubled before the teams got to the break. With a penalty-kick goal from Alem Duratovic at the 22:10 mark and a close-range unassisted goal from Matt Nguyen at the 27:02 mark, Kenyon opened up a 4-0 advantage. In the second half, Duratovic struck again. Right around the 60-minute mark, he collected a ball off a header from Ben Lantz. Within the left side of the box, Duratovic loaded up for a right-footed shot but pulled back, clearing a defender. He then shifted his weight, went to his left foot and scored his second goal of the game and his team-leading seventh of the season. Six minutes later, Duratovic assisted on a goal from Eamon Dujakovich, who ran the score to 6-0. Duratovic lobbed a pass across the goal from right to left. On its descent, Dujakovich got himself in position to head it into the Muskingum net
Kenyon, which out-shot Muskingum 32-10, got its final goal of the day from Atli Hrafnkelsson, who scored unassisted at the 75:47 mark.
