ST. LOUIS – The goals came in abundance for Missouri Baptist men's soccer in its conference introduction with University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy (UHSP) on Saturday. The first half would belong to
Marko Dordevic and Dordevic alone, setting the tone for the offensive onslaught to come.
MBU (6-2) traveled the short distance to St. Mary's High School in its fourth game away from home in a row. The Spartans were a force on offense all afternoon, bagging nearly 50 percent of its scoring total through the first six games of 2022 (21 goals) in the 90 minutes of play. An astounding six different MoBap players found the back of the net on UHSP (1-6), spearheaded by Dordevic's first half clinic.
Dordevic, a native of Belgrade, Serbia, came into the contest with four goals on the year and having just snapped a three-game hiatus from the scoresheet. The freshman doubled that number in the first 45 minutes. With two goals in the opening 15 and another two before half (5:14, 13:23, 33:11, 41:37), Dordevic opened the flood gates all on his own. The rest of the offense would keep them fully ajar in the second half.
Junior
Jack Carney wasted no time in the second half of increasing the Spartan advantage (48:03), getting his first points of the season in the process. Also showing their faces in the goals for the first time this year were
Aleksa Ilic (69:19)
Seosamh Sheerin (74:53) and
Rasmus Svensson (84:19, 89:10). MBU outshot UHSP 33-5 and had a 20-1 edge in shots on target over the course of the game.
While they didn't score, the midfield trio of
Lucas Encino,
Joe Ruane, and
Matteo Uez were the maestros pulling the strings. All three logged multiple assists: Encino had three, Ruane and Uez nabbed two apiece. Seven different Spartans recorded an assist overall.
In the nine AMC matches MBU have played with UHSP going back to 2015, the Spartans have never lost. Saturday marked the eighth time the Eutectics were held scoreless by a
Jake Alvernia-led squad, and it tied for the largest margin of victory for MoBap in the nine-game series.
"Marko [Dordevic] and Joe [Ruane] were brilliant today," Alvernia said. "I'm happy for the boys. They came out strong and earned a nice win. UHSP has a knack for hitting us on the break and I thought we did a good job limiting them. Good to get the first conference win."
Missouri Baptist will finally play at the friendly confines of Spartan Field once again next week for one more non-conference game. MBU will take on Iowa Wesleyan University on Wednesday Oct. 5th at 2 p.m.
