Lloyd Virgill | Courtesy TMC Athletics

Santa Clarita, CA — Lloyd Virgill and Humphrey Mahowa combined for 11 points and The Master’s College scored six times in the first half en route to a 9-0 win over St. Katherine Thursday afternoon on Reese Field.

The Mustangs’ second victory in a row, improving the club’s record to 4-1-1, featured the most goals the team has scored in a match since a 9-0 defeat of William Jessup in 2008.

The first-half, offensive outburst started early when Virgill (Canoga Park, CA) scored off a Mahowa (Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa) pass with just 3:06 gone in the match.  Thirty-one seconds later, Mahowa put one by Firebird goalie Dagoberto Barrera for a 2-0 advantage and Virgill capped the early barrage, tallying his second goal, courtesy of a Zach Klindworth (Valencia, CA) assist at the 4:30 mark.

Continuing to control the tempo, the Mustangs broke through again at the 16:38 mark when freshman Benjamin Tembo (Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa), taking a feed from Austin Rochow (Canyon Country, CA), scored his first collegiate goal to up the lead to 4-0.

Playing nearly everyone on the roster, Mustang coach Jim Rickard got plenty of production from a talented supporting cast along the way, exhibited by Trevor Mangan’s (Saugus, CA) second goal of the season at 24:05 off an Elijah Paniagua (San Gabriel, CA) pass for a five-goal advantage.

In a dominating, first-half performance that featured a 15-0 shot advantage (8-0 on goal), the Mustangs finished off the scoring at the 44:17 mark when Paniagua tallied his initial collegiate goal in unassisted fashion, sending the club to intermission comfortably ahead 6-0.

It didn’t take long for the offense to get untracked in the second stanza as Virgill completed a hat trick just 1:50 in with his team-high fifth goal of the young season.  Tembo and Christopher Logan (Orange, CA) assisted on the shot.

Mahowa, the reigning GSAC Player of the Year, made it an 8-0 game in the 54th minute (53:22) with his second goal of the match and his third of the season on a Brandon Davy (Santa Clarita, CA) assist.

On an afternoon when the Mustangs scored early and often, they had to wait over 26 minutes to finish things off as freshman local Dylan Bielanski (Valencia HS) scored his second collegiate goal on a Jonathan Brown (Gig Harbor, WA) assist with 10:20 (79:40) left to play.

Although overlooked during a game that was highlighted by offensive fireworks, the Kyle Cunningham-Casey Phillips goalie tandem still managed to combine for the club’s first shutout of the campaign.  Cunningham (Saugus, CA) picked up his third victory (3-0) of the season, making the team’s only save during his opening-half stint.

Winners of four of their first six matches, the Mustangs will now take four days off before hosting Bethesda on September 15 at 4:00pm on Reese Field.