Men brush aside Westminster

The CSU-Pueblo men’s soccer team wrapped up its west slope road trip on Sunday with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Westminster College (UT).  Udobong Obotette (Sr., Eugene, Ore.), Robert Kinsey (RFr., Denver, Colo.), and Ricky Itagaki (Fr., Aiea, Hawaii) each scored first half goals to headline the enjoyable non-conference encounter and help the Pack to its fourth straight win.

Coach Roy Stanley made several changes to his lineup for the game on Sunday.  Johnny Valenzuela (Jr., Las Cruces, N.M.) featured on the right, Joe Schwedhelm (So., Carson City, Nev.) started on the left, Steve Choman (Jr., Sparks, Nev.) anchored the left midfield, Corey Cullen (So. Fort Collins, Colo.) started at forward, and Jacob Blum (Fr., Peoria, Ariz.) got his first start in goal for the ThunderWolves.

Stanley explained the thinking behind the changes by saying that the players on his bench have been hungry for action, and that after viewing Westminster’s game against Mesa State on Friday, he felt that the players he had at his disposal would match up well against some nuances he spotted in the Westminster defense.

“We scouted them on Friday and noticed a lot of space in their defense,” he said.  Stanley said that he wanted his team to get the ball to his strikers as soon as possible in order to expose the Westminster formation.  After a fairly even opening 20 minutes, the ThunderWolves were able to do exactly what their coach instructed.

“It was really a weird game for the first 20 minutes or so,” said Stanley.  “They had equal, or maybe even more possession than we did, but we had a lot of wide open chances.”

That all changed when Stanley introduced Obotette and Kinsey into the lineup.  Soon after checking in, Obotette scored on an assist from Kinsey before turning provider for the youngster from Denver, allowing Kinsey to score his RMAC-leading 10th goal of the season around the 25 minute mark.

Itagaki put the Pack ahead 3-0 about 10 minutes from halftime, and that was all that was required of the men offensively.

“We had two, maybe three shots on goal in the second half,” Stanley said.  He credited his revamped lineup with providing the effort and work rate necessary to kill off the game with as little drama as possible.  “We started the same lineup, and they worked their butts off and stayed disciplined,” he said.

“I want to make it clear that although our ‘go to guys’ scored the goals, it was the rest of the guys, the bench, that kept the shut out,” he added.  “I think everyone did a solid job and really took something from the game.”

Also earning the praise of Stanley was the continued excellent play of Kinsey.  By scoring in both games on the weekend, the talented striker raised his goal count into the double digits, which he says is something he set out to do anyway.  “I wanted to get double digits in goals this season, so I’m happy I was able to do that,” he said.

He was equally happy about being able to be consistent with his scoring, despite the fact that defenses are starting to notice him and scheme against him.  “When I get off the bus and in games, teams are telling me, ‘We’re gonna stop your streak, you’re not scoring on us,’ but then I usually score a goal on them,” he said.

Stanley feels that Kinsey’s contributions to the team extend further than the scoreboard.  “He’s starting to recognize different things, and today he even scored with his left foot.  It helps everyone on the team when we feel like we can score goals and win games,” he said.