LAREDO, Texas -- No. 2-ranked Midwestern State fell behind 2-0 a little more than five minutes into the game at Dustdevil Soccer Field, but by halftime the Mustangs led Texas A&M International, 3-2, and went on to win their 10th straight game, 6-3, as
Samuele Muroni scored a hat trick for MSU.
Jordan Mase scored his seventh goal of the season as the Dustdevils ignited the home crowd with a goal in the fourth minute. Lassana Diakite added his seventh goal of the year just past the five-minute mark as the Dustdevils jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.
In a span of 15 minutes the high-scoring Mustangs took the lead.
Mere Escobar broke through with his 12th goal of the season in the 19th minute. A little more than four minutes later
Max Gonzales found the back of the net for his third goal of the campaign. In the 34th minute, Muroni scored his second goal in as many games to put the Mustangs in front at the interval.
Mase opened the second-half scoring and pulled the Dustdevils even, assisted by Jorge Amaya in the 57th minute. In the 65th minute Escobar registered his sixth assist of the season as
Juan Galindo scored on a corner kick for the Mustangs, who took a 4-3 lead.
Andreas Herrera, a junior from Laredo, received his second card and was sent off in the 73rd minute. The Dustdevils were down to 10 men when
Anthony Perea set up Muroni for his second goal of the game in the 79th minute.
Saul Fernandez saw his second card of the match in the 89th minute and the Dustdevils were down to nine men. One second before full time, Midwestern State added a goal.
Conner Lewis sent a ball into Muroni, who deflected it up for a bicycle kick that he whipped past goalkeeper Gal Grodeski from 12 yards out to complete the hat trick. Escobar had the last hat trick for the Mustangs in a 4-1 victory at UT Permian Basin last season.
Midwestern State improves to 12-0-1 and is 4-0-0 in the LSC. TAMIU falls to 4-5-3 and 0-3-1 in the conference.
The Mustangs are 7-0-0 as the visiting side this season and are outscoring opponents through 13 matches, 38-8.
Midwestern State plays its penultimate road game of the regular season at Lubbock Christian on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and returns home to face Eastern New Mexico on Saturday at 5 p.m. Three of the final four regular season games are at Stang Park.
--MSUMustangs.com--
