LONDON, Ont. - The No. 3 ranked Western Mustangs men's soccer team imposed their will on Guelph Sunday afternoon beating them 3-0 at TD Waterhouse Stadium. Andrew Murdoch recorded his seventh shutout of the year and Niko Mavrikos scored twice for Western with John Morrissey adding the third goal.
The Mustangs remain undefeated on the season at 8-0-1. They were ranked third in the nation before their wins against McMaster and Guelph this weekend. Mavrikos is leading the OUA and CIS with 11 goals on the season.
Western got its best scoring chance of the half on a corner kick after an Eric Amato free kick was barely tipped high of the net by Guelph goalkeeper Bryndon Fry. The Gryphons failed to clear the ball from the box and Alex Lewis blasted a shot off the left post.
Guelph had their best chance late in the first half. Off a free kick, the ball was shot twice through the box with no Western or Guelph player able to get a piece of it. The ball eventually went out of bounds off of Guelph.
Western came out quickly to start the second half and pushed the ball into Guelph's end. Lewis dropped a perfect pass to Mavrikos, who buried the shot into the back left of the net. This gave Western the 1-0 advantage just one minute into the second half (46th minute).
Murdoch of Burlington, Ont., made two excellent saves in the 58th minute to keep Guelph off the scoresheet. Guelph's Arthur Berlin shot from just outside the box to the left and Murdoch could not corral the shot. He then had to make a save on Drew Gowan's shot off the rebound.
Mavrikos got his second goal of the game in the 65th minute after Guelph failed to clear a corner kick and Mavrikos collected the ball in the box and blasted it past the keeper to make it 2-0.
Murdoch made another great save in the 79th minute off a strike from Guelph's Brandon Springer to keep the Gryphons off the board for good.
With Guelph trying to put a goal on the board, Western caught them on the odd-man advantage and Morrissey made a nice move cutting back to the middle and blasted the third goal of the game past Fry.
