NAMPA, Idaho – Seizing momentum from the opening whistle and never looking back on Saturday afternoon at the Northwest Nazarene University Soccer Field, Westminster College rolled to a 3-0 blanking of the Montana State University Billings men's soccer team in a neutral-site contest.
 
The Griffins (1-3) were up 2-0 by the ninth minute of the match, and by the 30th they had a 3-0 advantage that was never in jeopardy of being approached the rest of the way. "Overall we had a bad performance today," said MSUB head coach Thomas Chameraud. "We never really entered the game, and Westminster took advantage early to beat us. We were incapable of doing anything, which makes it very difficult to compete in a game. We have a game coming up next week and we will expect a big reaction from our team to see what kind of character we have."
 
Carlos Becerra-Gomez got the scoring started in the seventh minute, when he tucked home his first goal of the year to make it 1-0. In the blink of an eye, the tally was doubled when Skyler Kjellander netted his first goal in the ninth minute. Kjellander's finish came on an assist from Luke Merrill, who was just getting started in the match.
 
The Griffins' final finish came at the 30-minute mark, when Merrill was fed by Becerra-Gomez for his first goal of the year. After being shut out in each of its first three matches, Westminster used three different goal scorers to run away with the victory.
 
The Yellowjackets (1-3-1) failed to gain any traction after facing the early deficit, although they managed to take 14 shots in the match and place six of them on frame. Edgar Ramirez was the team's most effective player on Saturday, as all three of his attempts landed on target. Halil Yilmaz led the team with four shots, and put one on frame.
 
Max Bingman had a team-high four shots for Westminster, while Becerra-Gomez, Kjellander, and Luis Martinez each put a pair of tries on target. Westminster goalkeeper Ian Rose made six saves in his 90 minutes of work to earn his first shutout of the season.
 
Georgios Theodoulidis made six saves for the Yellowjackets, but he faced a barrage of 17 shots including nine that were on target by the Griffins. Making his return to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension for a soft red card, senior captain Luca Battistotti was the lone field player to play all 90 minutes in Saturday's match for the 'Jackets.
 
THE BUZZ: Ramirez was selected as the St. Vincent Healthcare Player of the Game…MSUB is now 3-11 all-time against Westminster and is 0-2 in neutral-site contests against the Griffins…Saturday was MSUB's most lopsided shutout loss since a 3-0 defeat at the hands of No. 13 Eastern New Mexico University on Sept. 21, 2019.
 
AHEAD: The Yellowjackets have their final non-conference match in the form of a midweek affair on Wednesday at South Dakota School of Mines. Kickoff in Rapid City, S.D., is set for 4 p.m. with live video available online here and live statistics available online here.