The Misericordia men's soccer team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back against Delaware Valley today, easily winning 5-0 for their second consecutive league victory.

The Cougars scored first just 33 seconds into the game. Nick Ferguson collected the opening kickoff, cut by two defenders, and won a throw. Junior Jay-P Evans poked the ball in after a scramble, giving MU the lead in the first minute before Delaware Valley had even had possession of the ball.

The Delaware Valley defense played a very high offside trap, forcing the Cougars into 13 offsides calls, including nine in the first half. However, the Aggies also repeatedly gave MU breakaway chances, including an opportunity six minutes after the goal that freshman Andy Bush couldn't take around the opposing goalkeeper.

In the 15th minute however, another breakaway led to a second Cougar goal. Joey Scanlon's shot was saved but Josh Yoo followed up the rebound for his first of two goals on the day.

Six minutes later and it was 3-0 Misericordia, as Chris Hummel knocked down a free kick to Scanlon, who slotted it home for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.

While the Cougars dominated throughout the match, Delaware Valley did create several good first-half chances. 11 minutes in, an Aggie player missed just wide on a diving header inside the six-yard box. MU goalkeeper Andrew Loyd was also forced into two difficult saves in the half, diving to his right to stop both a long-range effort mid-way through the half and a point-blank chance with nine minutes remaining in the period.

In the second half, the Cougars picked up where they left off, nearly scoring two minutes in as Bryan Kulbacki forced the Aggie goalkeeper into a tough diving save.

In the 54th minute, Bush beat the goalkeeper to a loose ball and rolled his shot off the post, with Yoo again following the rebound to tap-in, giving him six goals on the season to match Scanlon for the team lead.

By now the Aggies had lost all direction and were rescued on several occasions by their senior goalkeeper. First he made a breakaway kick save on Tim Bullis, before stopping Matt Scott in similar fashion. The save of the game came with 10 minutes to go, when Scott crossed to Eric Kishbaugh, who's six-yard blast was saved point-blank by the Delaware Valley keeper.

Misericordia was able to tack on a fifth when a Greg Korhonen free kick was flicked by Scanlon to senior Cody Harman, who scored his first goal of the season to cap a solid all-around performance by the Cougars.

MU improves to 6-4-3, 2-1-1 with the win. The Cougars host Penn College on Tuesday before finishing regular season play with a trio of challenging conference games.