McPherson, Kan. – It was homecoming for McPherson College this past weekend and as luck should have it, all of the Saturday sporting events were competing at home. Both the women's and men's soccer teams as well as football played against the University of Saint Mary. Bulldog athletics finished the day 3-0 as the two soccer clubs won in convincing fashion, 5-1 and 5-1, and football turned a close contest into a rout, defeating the Spires 24-9.
The athletic events started early for McPherson as they held their yearly Hall of Fame Ceremony in the morning. This year's honoree was former Sports Information Director Carol Swenson who worked with the college from 2000-2009.
The women's soccer match was the first game for Mac and after scoring just one goal in the first half, despite controlling passion throughout, MC posted four in the second to win the match 5-1. Rhea Vale, Cydney Lewis, Haley Anderson, Morgan Anderson, and Cheyanne Smith all scored a goal; Lewis and H. Anderson also recorded assists. The Lady Bulldogs outshot USM 26-14 with an incredible 13 shots on goal.
In the men's soccer game, they did a flip of the women's as they scored four goals in the first and then just one in the second. Oscar Cortez, Leonel Martinez, and Alex Ronneburg each scored once while Nick Torres posted two goals; Ronneburg had a pair of assists while Cortez and Brayam De La Cruz each tallied one. "This was another important game for us to stay in the hunt for a conference championship," said Coach Quint. "We had a great first half performance and need to learn to sustain that level for 90 minutes. Due to our continued injury bug there were once again guys that stepped up and played really solid minutes. It was nice to see. We have a tough road week coming up and need to continue to focus and control our destiny."
The final athletic event for the day was the football game that kicked off at 6:00. MC was using their fourth starting quarterback of the season as Kelly Cordova moved from his wide receiver position. It was a very low-scoring first half as the two teams went into the locker room deadlocked at 3-3. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown on their first possession of the third quarter and USM answered at the end of the period but a blocked PAT gave Mac a 10-9 lead with 15 minutes to play. McPherson put together two long, sustained touchdown drives to bring the score to its final of 24-19. Cordova ended the night completing 8-of-14 passes for 124 yards and two scores and also gained 115 yards rushing on 14 tries with one touchdown. Highlighting the defense, which gave up just 331 total yards, was Ben Kimbrough with his two sacks including a forced fumble and recovery.
It's on the road at Tabor College next week for McPherson soccer and football. The soccer teams take the pitch on Wednesday the 22nd while football travels to the Blue Jays on Saturday the 25th.
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McPherson College is a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference member school and a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
