Men’s soccer picks up shutout win over Texas College, Kaeppeli sets another record

A second half flurry helped the Texas A&M University-Victoria get back in the win column on Thursday.

The Jaguars (6-5-1, 2-2-1) used three second half goals and dominant possession to down Texas College, 4-0, at The Cage. Those three second-half goals game in the match's final 12 minutes.

A&M-Victoria out-shot Texas College 39-1, including 12-0 in shots on goal.

"The best thing for us after today was, defensively, I thought it was one of our better performances," said head coach Vince Martinez. "We had a gameplan going and they followed it. I can't say they had too many opportunities on goal. I credit Jacob Anderson and the back line. The midfield worked harder than it did."

With the shutout, goalkeeper Tyler Kaeppeli became the all-time leader in shutouts (20) and minutes in goal (4583:51) at A&M-Victoria.

The Vernon, British Columbia, native also owns the career records for saves (163) and games started in goal (53).

"It means a lot, again," Kaeppeli said. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates over the years and today. It was a solid performance defensively. So, I'm just glad we can come together to get these kinds of wins."

Jervan Matthew opened the scoring in the 16^th minute after putting away a deflection from Yahir Pena's shot. It was the sixth goal of the year for the Cochrane, Dominica, native.

Jacob Anderson sparked the second-half outburst with his first goal of the year, heading home a corner kick from Mosiah Bonney in the 79^th minute to make it 2-0. Josh Loveridge then dispatched a penalty in the 86^th minute before providing one of two assists on Hans-Kristian Grotting's first goal of the year in the 87^th minute. Brandon Garay was the other assist on the game's final goal.

"Finally," Anderson said. "I've been up (on corners) every game, trying to score goals. But it's finally came, so I'm happy. Coach talked about it at halftime and then we got the goal. That's always good that it reflected on the pitch. I'm happy because it also helped kickstart us. It took some pressure off us and then we scored two more after that."

The Jaguars are back at home on Saturday to face University of the Southwest.