BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne men's soccer team stays in the conference playoff race with a 4-1 victory over East Texas Baptist Friday afternoon at Citizens National Bank Field.

In the 33rd,minute, HPU's Shay Pate scored his third goal of the season off a shot from in the box with an assist from Kevin Ruiz. Just over a minute later, Jacob Moore scored for HPU on a penalty kick, which set the tone for the match as Howard Payne went on to win 4-1.

After the two quick goals, HPU added an unassisted goal in the 42nd,minute by Ruben Lemus to make it 3-0, which is how the teams would stand going into halftime.

After ETBU switched goal keepers to start the second half, the Tigers allowed another Yellow Jacket goal to increase the HPU lead to 4-0. Tracer Moore scored in the 61st,minute on a shot from the box, assisted by Jacob Moore.

ETBU finally got on the board in the 75th,minute with an unassisted goal by Bryan Romero.

Brice Gardner picked up his third consecutive win in goal recording nine saves in the complete game victory.

Howard Payne improves to,4-9-1 overall and 3-4-1 in conference action. East Texas Baptist falls to 4-7-2 overall and 3-5-0 in conference. The Yellow Jackets will play Louisiana College on Saturday starting at 3:00 pm to finish out the regular season.
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