Grove City College Athletics

LORETTO, Pa. -- Junior midfielder Luke Ladas (Parsippany, N.J./Parsippany Hills) scored twice in the first eight minutes Wednesday afternoon while five teammates joined him in the scoring column as the Grove City College men's soccer team earned a 7-0 win at Saint Francis in a matchup of Presidents' Athletic Conference squads at Stokes Soccerplex.

Senior midfielder Noah Gray (Glen Mills, Pa./The Christian Academy), senior forward Ryan Merrick (Cranberry Township, Pa./Eden Christian), sophomore midfielder Owen Whitehead (Mesa, Ariz./Arete Prep), sophomore midfielder Cristian Garcia (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) and sophomore forward David Lapp (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) also scored for the Wolverines (7-1-3), who improved to 4-0 on the road.

Gray gave Grove City a 1-0 lead 51 seconds into the match when he scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season. Junior midfielder Evan Yoder (Milton, Pa./Milton) and sophomore midfielder Judah Gray (Glen Mills, Pa./The Christian Academy) assisted on the goal.

Ladas pushed the lead to 2-0 at the 3:29 mark when he scored his first goal of the afternoon. Senior defender Colton Hudson (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) assisted the Ladas goal. 

An unassisted Ladas goal at 7:27 extended the lead to 3-0. Ladas then recorded his fifth point of the day at 13:53 when he assisted Merrick's goal.

Whitehead registered the Wolverines' fifth goal of the first half at 26:08 after receiving an assist from sophomore defender Flavio Escareno (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South). Garcia closed the first-half scoring with a tally at 40:36, his second score of the season. Junior Evan Ensminger (Easton, Md./Easton) assisted Garcia's goal.

Lapp capped the scoring with an unassisted goal at 73:17.

Grove City owned a 16-1 edge in shots on goal as part of a 21-1 advantage in total shots. Grove City had nine corner kicks and did not yield a corner kick to the Red Wolves (0-6). 

Sophomore goalkeeper Keller Krieger (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence) earned the shutout win by stopping one shot. It is his ninth career shutout. As a team, Grove City has seven shutouts so far this year.

Wednesday's match marked the first meeting between the teams since 1973. The teams played yearly from 1961 to 1973. Grove City leads the all-time series, 13-0-1. The match does not count in the conference standings as Saint Vincent is a provisional member of NCAA Division III.

The Wolverines return home to host Chatham at 7 p.m. in conference action at Don Lyle Field.