Antigonish, N.S. - On the strength of five unanswered goals in the first half, the StFX X-Men (3-0-2) cruised to a convincing 8-0 win over the visiting Mount Allison Mounties (0-4-1) in AUS soccer action Saturday afternoon at StFX Stadium.
Carrying the play from the opening whistle, the X-Men exerted tremendous offensive pressure on the Mounties, with their first marker coming, in the 17th minute, off a blistering strike from freshman Tane Caubo (London, England). After taking a pass from Dan Hayfield (Exeter, UK), the forward ripped a shot into the top corner behind Mountie goalkeeper Seiwa Lui (Warabi, Saitama).
Caubo made it back-to-back tallies, less than two minutes later, when he picked up a loose ball after Lui collided with defender Regan Lynch (Waverley, NS), while trying to play a left-footed cross from Joe Ward (Newport, South Wales) of the X-Men. Caubo calmly directed the ball into the gaping net.
Starting with a lead pass from the back from defender Dustin Benetti (Calgary, AB) to Caubo, the X-Men extended the advantage to 3-0, in the 21st minute. Caubo fed Ben Herringer (Calgary, AB), who found Hayfield for a hard strike that found the back of the net.
Herringer completed a four-goal outburst in six minutes, when he roofed a blast behind Lui, in the 23rd minute. All-star midfielder Liam Elbourne (Halifax, NS) broke free from a defender before finding Caubo, who re-directed a pass to the goal scorer, who made it 4-0.
In the 43rd minute, Herringer potted his second of the match, when he poked in a rebound, off a Caubo strike that Lui turned aside with a great save.
In the second half, Ward extended the StFX lead to 6-0, with a left-footed strike, off a free kick.
Off a cross from Cole Suart (Ottawa, ON), James Fitzpatrick (Victoria, BC) beat Lui short side, showing great touch off a re-direction.
Herringer wrapped up the scoring, with his third of the match, to make it 8-0.
Alex Taylor (Fall River, NS) was the Subway player of the match for the X-Men.
Thomas Pieroway (Conception Bay, NL) recorded the shutout.
The Mounties will be back in action Sunday, Sept. 25, at 3:15 p.m., when they travel to Sydney to face the Cape Breton University Capers.
The X-Men will wrap up a weekend home stand, on the same day, when the Memorial SeaHawks visit StFX Stadium.
Game time is 3:15 p.m.