ABILENE, TX— The St. Thomas men's soccer team delivered an explosive offensive performance on the road, storming past Hardin-Simmons University 5–1 at the HSU Soccer Complex. The Celts dictated play from start to finish, racking up 22 shot attempts to improve their overall record to 2–1–0 on the season.
St. Thomas set the tone early in the first half when Diego Guerra struck in the 8th minute (07:25) off an assist from Richard Monge to give the Celts a 1–0 lead. Hardin-Simmons responded in the 23rd minute (22:08) to briefly level the match at 1–1. The Celts kept pressing and regained the lead in the 36th minute (35:22) when Brian Garcia found the back of the net off a setup from Diego Martinez, sending St. Thomas into halftime ahead 2–1.
The second half was all St. Thomas as the offense hit another gear. Dillon Trimble extended the advantage in the 69th minute (68:51) with an unassisted goal to make it 3–1. Just three minutes later (72:15), Juan Guzman added another unassisted strike to stretch the lead to 4–1. Guzman capped off the night in the 86th minute (85:18) by netting his second goal of the match off an assist from Diego Guerra, locking in the dominant 5–1 final score.
St. Thomas controlled the stat sheet throughout, outshooting Hardin-Simmons 22–10 while placing 18 shots on goal. Goalkeeper Max Rodriguez earned the victory in net, making 1 save across nearly 79 minutes of action before Luis Hernandez closed out the final 11 minutes.
Match Notes:
Up Next: The Celts return home to SaberCats Stadium for their next matchup against the University of Houston-Victoria on September 17 at 5:00 PM. Follow the team at www.ustcelts.com or on Instagram @ustathletics and @ustmsoccer for game times, live stream links, and updates.
