KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan University men's soccer team defeated the Villanova Wildcats Monday 5-1 during the Brown and Gold's annual Soccer Fest. In the win, Greyson Mercer (2), Noah James (2), and Roni Sylejmani (1) provided a balanced scoring attack for the Brown and Gold. The win would mark head coach Chad Wiseman's 126th victory with the Brown and Gold, which set the all-time coaching wins record for the WMU men's soccer team.  

"Shout out to Greg Cronkite and Maya Dragicevich (Mokrzan) for all their work on Bronco Soccer Fest.  It's a great day for our soccer community," said Wiseman after the Brown and Gold's victory.   

For the third time in four games this season, the WMU men's soccer team never trailed for the entire regulation. To help continue WMU's fantastic start to the season, James scored his first goal of the match in the 25th minute to put the Broncos ahead 1-0. During James' goal, his teammates Owen Smith and Mercer were credited with assists to begin the match.   

Later, with WMU holding onto the one-goal lead after the first 45 minutes of play, Mercer caught fire and scored two second-half goals and added an assist to continue WMU's fantastic start to 2024. 

Mercer scored his first goal in the 53rd minute of regulation from assisting teammates Braxton Arpachinda and team captain Landon Fisher.

Later, James would score his second goal of the match in the 76th minute behind assists from  Mercer and Christian Shannon. 

The Wildcats responded in the 77th minute to cut the Bronco lead to two. 57 seconds later in the match, Sylejmani responded by  ripping a shot into the back of the Villanova net after a service from Carson Hodgson to extend the Bronco lead to 4-1. Following Sylejmani's goal,  Mercer would score his second and final goal of the match in the 79th minute to put the Broncos ahead by four and put a stamp on the 5-1 Bronco victory. 

"A great team performance today, we had control of the match and scored some highlight reel goals,"  said Wiseman. 

With his second goal, Mercer captured his second multi-goal game and his first-ever two-goal, two-assist match of his career. As for James, he would tally his first career multi-goal game.

"Shout out to Jordan and Alek for playing their first minutes in a Bronco uniform". Added Wisman. Freshman midfielder Jordan Klein tallied 18 minutes of action in his debut, while redshirt freshman Alek Markovski made his Bronco debut after an injury that kept him sidelined for all of 2023. Today, Markovski helped the Broncos with 25 minutes of action.   

"I want to thank all of Bronco Nation, the players, coaches, staff, and of course, our great fans. They all make working at WMU very special.  I love being a Bronco." concluded Wiseman.

Historical Notes

With coach Wiseman's 126th win, he has surpassed Blake Glass (1983-1997, 125 wins) for the most wins for the WMU men's soccer program, a record that had been held by Glass since 1996.  

The men's soccer team continued its unbeaten run with a 25th game without a loss Monday. Coinciding with this streak, the Brown and Gold have boasted a 13-0-2 record at WMU Soccer Complex dating back to Saturday, October 22, 2022.

With his assist to Sylejmani, Hodgson moved into a tie with Eric Conerty (2019-22) for the ninth most career assists in program history with 16. 

Up Next

The Brown and Gold will return to WMU Soccer Complex on Friday, September 6, against #12 Northwestern University. Kickoff is slated for 5:30 PM. For tickets, visit https://wmubroncos.evenue.net/events/SOC.

For all things WMU men's soccer, follow the team on Instagram, @wmu_menssoccer, X, @WMUMensSoccer, and Facebook, @wmumenssoccer.