RedStorm wallops Red Wolves

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande men's soccer team hadn't enjoyed an offensive explosion all season.
     That changed with Saturday afternoon's River States Conference home affair against Indiana University East.
     Head coach Scott Morrissey's RedStorm set a single-game high for goals in a game this season, exploding late for an eventual 10-0 win over the Red Wolves at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Rio Grande, ranked 26th in the latest NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll, improved to 8-4-3 overall and 6-1 inside the RSC with the win.
     IU East dropped to 3-11-1 overall and 1-6 in conference play with the loss.
     The 10 goals for the RedStorm represented the most in a game since an 11-0 win over IU East in the quarterfinal round of the RSC Championship on Nov. 4, 2023, in Rio Grande.
     Seven of the 10 markers came after halftime and the final six came in a span covering just under eight minutes.
     Sophomore Estevao Goncalves (Sao Paulo, Brazil) had two goals and two assists to lead the Rio offensive onslaught, while junior Tommy Munoz Salazar (San Jose, Costa Rica) scored twice, freshman Nahuel Coppiz (Cordoba, Argentina) had a goal and two assists and the duo of freshman Andre Louro (Lisbon, Portugal) and junior Luke Tinkler (Nottingham, England) had two assists each.
     The RedStorm finished with a 26-1 edge in shots, a 17-1 advantage in shots on goal and had all seven corner kick chances on the day.
     Coppiz got the scoring underway just 8:37 into the match, netting a goal off a touch by freshman Will Perry (Crewe, England) to make it 1-0.
     Freshman Facundo Rossich (Buenos Aires, Argentina) scored off of an assist by freshman Allen Julian (Villa Berthet, Argentina) with 25:16 left in the half and Goncalves tacked on his first goal via a feed from Coppiz just 13 seconds later to push the lead to 3-0.
     That's how things stayed until a score by senior Marti Puigsegur Calvo (Barcelona, Spain) - off another assist by Coppiz - with a little more than 12-1/2 minutes gone in the second half increased the advantage to 4-0 and set the stage for the late game barrage of markers.
     Munoz Salazar netted his first goal thanks to an assist by Tinkler with 10:30 remaining to make it 5-0 and, just 1:42 later, Tinkler assisted on a goal by senior Harry Walsh (Letchworth Garden City, England) for a 6-0 cushion.
     A little less than 2-1/2 minutes later, Munoz Salazar scored again with the aid of Goncalves and, three minutes after that, Louro had the assist on a goal by sophomore Hugo Ferreira (Paris, France) which pushed the cushion to 8-0.
     The final flurry came just 35 seconds later when Goncalves assisted on a goal by junior Phillip Mokwa (Duesseldorf, Germany) and, only 22 seconds hence, Goncalves scored thanks to a pass by Louro.
     Freshman Samy Hamou (Paris, France) had one save in a complete game effort in goal for the RedStorm.
     Elijah Williamson had seven stops in a losing cause for IU East.
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action when it hosts Kentucky Christian University for a 6 p.m. kickoff on Thursday night.