CANYON, Texas  – The West Texas A&M men's soccer team scored early and often as they defeated the Greyhounds of Eastern New Mexico 5-0 in the quarterfinals of the Heartland Conference Tournament at The Pitch in front of 475 fans on Tuesday night. The Buffs four first half goals proved to be too much for ENMU as they will now face off against No. 2 seed St. Edward's on Friday night in Wichita Falls. With the win, the Buffs improve to 14-4-1 (10-3-1) while ENMU ends the season at 7-8-4 (5-6-3).

"It felt good to get on them early and score an early goal," WT men's soccer head coach Butch Lauffer. "Mirza provided energy, athleticism and toughness upfront and he repaid us with an early goal. His goal set the tone for the rest of the match for us. I know the match ended 5-0 but Eastern played well for parts of the match."

Junior Mirza Dizdarevic opened WT's scoring account at 3:07 after nice build up play from the midfield. The Malmo, Sweden native scored his second game in the past three matches when he got on the end of a through ball form Tom Cowling before beating James Gutierrez far post.

The Buffs added a brace just 55 seconds later on 3:57 on Thomas Vickers' fourth goal of the season. The senior defender was the beneficiary of Cowling's second assist of the night as he latched onto the corner sending it past Gutierrez to make it 2-0.

Evan Bozman's second career goal made it 3-0 at 12:15 after Ivan Ulloa slalomed through the ENMU defense to find a wide open Bozman just inside the six yard box. The Buffs weren't done there as Gabe Williams added a fourth just minutes before the halftime scoring his third of the year. The Pflugerville, Texas native has Jake Wiffen to thank for the goal as he pulled the defenders away from Williams before feeding him a near perfect through ball.

The Buffs finished the first half with 14 shots, four of those being on goal.

Reece Schattle made it 5-0 at 67:26 after nice build up play by Williams and Felipe Silva. The Plano, Texas made a long run down the left side and was rewarded as Silva flicked Williams' pass over his right shoulder before Schattle put enough on his shot to beat Gutierrez.

The Buffs finished the match with 24-6 advantage shots while taking five corners.

With the shutout, junior goalkeeper Patrick Satorie earned his 22 career shutout breaking Sebastian Furness' record of 21.The junior from Victoria, Australia made four saves as he extended his own school record for shutouts in a season to 12.

"Pat has done a great job this year," Lauffer noted. "Coach James Crowder deserves a lot of credit for two years now and you can see the progress that he has made. He has really improved with crosses and long balls and he should be proud of his accomplishment. He beat out a lot of good goalkeepers that we have had come through WT."

The Buffs will travel to Wichita Falls, Texas for a semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed St. Edward's on Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. It will be the second meeting of the season between the two programs as the Hilltoppers defeated WT 1-0 Oct. 13 at The Pitch.

Notes:

·  With the win, the Buffs now lead the all-time series 17-7-3 including 11-2-3 in Canyon.

·  The Buffs scored 5 goals for the first time since defeating Huston Tillotson 6-1 on Sept. 9.

·  Tom Cowling had two assists in one match for the first time in his career.

·  Satorie entered the 2016 season with a combined 10 shutouts, he has two more than that this season alone.

·  The Buffs are now 9-0-0 when they score 3 goals in a match.

·  WT scored four goals in the first half for the first time this season.