WINONA LAKE, Ind. - Grace College's men's soccer team closed out the opening week of the season with an impressive 4-0 victory over Governors State on Saturday afternoon.
The Lancers were fueled by three goals from
Martim Sequeira, who completed his second career hat trick and brought his career goal total to 35. Sequeira is now tied with former Lancer Ulisses Miranda for 10th all-time in career goal scoring at Grace.
The game opened up as a midfield battle with neither team even attempting a shot until 20 minutes had elapsed in the opening stanza. When a shot finally was tried towards goal, it came from the foot of Sequeira.
Daniel Santos Rosa directed a cross into the Jaguars box. After receiving the cross, Sequeira tried the shot towards the GSU net, but a desperation stretch from a Jaguars' defender deflected the goal high of its mark.
Sequeira continued to be a menace towards the GSU defense, trying two more shots on goal that forced the Jaguar keeper to be at his best.
GSU's best chance of the half came from a set-piece opportunity with 15-minutes left, but it was defended well by the Lancers and the ensuing shot was sent well wide of goal.
Just minutes later the Lancers broke the deadlock.
Josh Cruz beat a defender to ball deep in Jaguars' side of the field, and then found a streaking Sequeira who buried his first goal of the season.
Grace continued to pressure late, but was unable to add to their advantage and carried a 1-0 lead into the half. The Lancers held a 6-4 shot advantage and each team had one corner kick.
Grace wasted little time doubling their lead in the second, as the Lancers scored less than a minute into the action.
Santos Rosa played a beautiful give-and-go pass that left Sequeira clear of any GSU defenders. The senior forward then showed his class as he sliced a shot to the opposite corner of the net to move Grace's lead to 2-0.
The middle portion of the half belonged to the Jaguars. Fueled by a sense of urgency to draw back within one, GSU outshot Grace 5-1 over the next 20 minutes, but was still unable to solve
Matteo Conci.
With 12 minutes left in the game, the Lancers would take a stranglehold on the contest.
Kyle Holwerda intercepted a Jaguars' pass, then proceeded to dribble around the flailing keeper before putting the ball past one more GSU defender to expand the Lancer advantage to three goals.
Grace continued to press late and with 4:01 left, Sequeira found his hat trick marker. In Grace's defensive end,
Gavin Morgan hustled to keep the ball in play and it quickly found its way to
Frederik Christmann.
Christmann then threaded a pass through a pair of defenders to Sequeira who confidently finished off the play with his third goal of the afternoon to secure the 4-0 win for Grace.
At the completion of the 90-minutes, Grace held a 15-9 shot advantage.
Matteo Conci picked up his second clean sheet of the season.
The Lancers will now travel west as they test themselves against a trio of top-15 opponents. Grace will play No. 6 Mid-America Christian on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. before facing off with No. 15 MidAmerican Nazarene (Saturday) and No. 7 Missouri Valley (September 4).
