LAKE WALES, Fla. -- Teams that can go two-deep at every position without much falloff tend to wear teams who do not have the luxury of such depth down -- due to those teams' ability to rotate fresh legs and keep individuals competing within their own team with few, if any, safe starting positions due to the amount of talent available.
Under second-year head coach Stan Rodrigues and second-year assistant coach Jonathan Olivera, the Shawnee State men's soccer program has that luxury this season, and the Bears' ability to utilize that depth properly while playing as one unit within Rodrigues' system led to an excellent victory in the Sunshine State Saturday evening.
Behind by a 1-0 margin at the halftime break, Shawnee State answered with a second half flurry as the Bears scored three goals over a 25-minute span in the final stanza, with
Alfie Maynard (46th),
Nikos Pontikis (58th) and
Esau Chavez (70th) all scoring on assisted shots as SSU controlled much of the second half proceedings en route to a 3-1 victory over Warner (Fla.) Saturday evening at the Royals Soccer Field in Lake Wales, Fla.
GAME BREAKDOWN
Shawnee State (1-0-1) was outshot 9-6 in the first half and a 15-13 margin for the contest, but the Bears were accurate with their shot placement throughout Saturday's contest, placing nine of their 13 shots on frame compared to seven for Warner (0-2) en route to collecting the gritty triumph.Â
The Bears also showcased as deep of a unit as Shawnee State has sported in some time, with 23 of Shawnee State's 26 players participating in the match. Of those, 21 of them played over 10 minutes with 18 playing over 20 minutes as the Bears were able to wear on Warner, who played 17 players total and just 13 over 20 minutes in the contest.
"The new guys really stepped up and listened and gave us the focus we needed so that the returners like Alfie (Maynard) and Nikos (Pontikis) and Trevor (Aviero Masanjala) could spark us and give us the momentum we needed to finish the match and put Warner away," Rodrigues said. "I'm proud of how all of our guys stepped up to the plate as well as the energy that they brought throughout the second half. It's not easy to make up a deficit on any team in the sport, so our guys coming out and putting three goals in the back of the net in the second half was big. We've got to channel this going forward as we return home and prepare for three home games over our next four matches of the season."
Facilitating and creating
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Having enjoyed a strong start to the 2024 season before an injury at midseason abbreviated his progress, Shawnee State senior
Alfie Maynard again showed off impressive touch en route to helping lead the charge from an offensive perspective.
With the Bears trailing by a 1-0 margin, a great pass from Trevor Aviero Masanjala changed all that.
Within a few yards of the Shawnee State bench on the far side, Masanjala lofted a pass high in the air that was corralled by Maynard, who fired the ball home mere seconds following the whistle back to halftime action to change the complexion of the match -- and tie the score at one apiece. The assist was Masanjala's third of his career, as well as his seventh overall point.
Just 12 minutes later, Shawnee State struck again.
On a strong advance, an opportunity was created for senior captain
Marco Riva, who took a corner kick from the far side and lofted an excellent ball to the near side of the box.
From there, fellow senior captain
Nikos Pontikis took control, as Pontikis, charging hard all the way, hammered the ball home from the right side of the box to the left corner of the net, putting the Bears ahead by a 2-1 margin in the 58th minute. The assist was Riva's sixth career dime and his 18th career point in his 50th game at Shawnee State, while Pontikis scored his 13th career goal and now has 32 career points in 51 games at SSU.
The momentum continued to carry into yet another opportunity 12 minutes later, where Maynard found a streaking Chavez for the latter's first goal of his career as well as his first set of points at Shawnee State. With his goal and assist for the evening, Maynard is now up to 15 career goals for his collegiate career between Shawnee State and Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.) and has five career assists for 35 career points total.
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NEXT UP:
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Shawnee State (1-0-1) returns to Shawnee Turf for three of its next four matches, beginning with its home opener Saturday, Aug. 30 against Milligan (Tenn.). That matchup will commence at 7 p.m. in Portsmouth.
For more information, visit the Shawnee State men's soccer page atÂ
https://ssubears.com/sports/mens-soccer or follow SSU men's soccer on Instagram atÂ
https://www.instagram.com/ssumsoc/.
