Morrow, Ga.-----Five second half goals from five different players helped #6 Wingate blow open a 1-0 halftime lead, sending the Bulldogs home with a 6-1 road win over Clayton State Monday night at Laker Field. The Bulldogs scored six goals in a match for the second time in less than a week to stay perfect and improve to 10-0 overall, while the Lakers drop to 2-9 overall. The victory moves the Bulldogs to 2-0-1 all-time against Clayton State.
Junior Callum Ross (Newcastle, England) gave Wingate the first half lead with his seventh goal of 2016, already equaling his total from 2015. Junior Elma N'For (Yaounde, Cameroon) slid a pass through the box to the back post where Ross slotted it into the back of the net with his left foot. Wingate out-shot the Lakers 10-2 in the opening half.
N'For opened the scoring just three minutes into the second half, getting a long through ball from Jon Ander (Bilbao, Spain) and finishing over the top of Clayton State freshman goalkeeper Leuri Fraire (Dalton, Ga.) to make it 2-0 Bulldogs. It was the 7th goal of the year as well for the junior transfer to equal Ross' team lead.
Senior defender Alex Nelson (Newcastle, England) came into the 2016 season with four career goals but scored his third goal in the last six days on a corner kick to the back post from Ander. Nelson's goal made it 3-0 Bulldogs in the 58th minute.
Three Bulldogs collected their first career goals to round out the scoring on the night. Junior Mateo Correa (Medellin, Colombia) collected a loose ball in front of the goal on a feed from N'For in the 68th minute and fired it past Fraire to make it 4-0. Sophomore Jose Ojeda (Bogota, Colombia) scored on an assist from Jack Miller (Linlithgow, Scotland) in the 89th minute to make it 5-0.
After Clayton State junior Ryan King (County Durham, England) scored 30 seconds later, Bulldog freshman Will Tomlinson (Apex, N.C.) answered with two seconds left in the match, catching Fraire off his line and chipping it over the freshman goalkeeper.
Wingate outshot the Lakers 27-4 on the night, with an 18-2 edge in shots on goal. Along with his two assists, Ander led all players with seven shots, including four shots on goal. N'For and Ross each added four shots for the visitors. King was the only Laker with more than one shot.
All-American sophomore goalkeeper Pablo Jara (Santiago, Chile) finished with one save and the late goal allowed, just the fifth Jara has given up in 900 minutes this season. Fraire gave up all six goals, registering 12 saves for Clayton State.
Wingate returns to South Atlantic Conference play on Saturday at home against Carson-Newman. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Clayton State plays at Peach Belt member Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
