McPherson, Kan. – A very young McPherson College football team was handed a loss in the first game of 2015 by a very talented and experienced No. 22 Doane College at Service Saturday in McPherson. The Tigers took the game 54-7.
"We got beat by a very good football team," said Coach Mierkiewicz. "One thing out players did is not quit. If I have a team that won't quit, we'll be in good shape. We have some things that we need to get cleaned up but we have two weeks until we travel to Southwestern and I know that we'll be in a better position by then."
Doane opened the game with a four-minute drive to take a quick 7-0 lead. MC had a tough time moving the ball and, following a three-and-out, had their punt blocked and returned for a touchdown to go down 17-0 after the opening quarter.
The Bulldogs had another punt blocked and returned for a TD in the second and headed into the locker room down 34-0.
Mac came out of the break with some fire and had a solid defensive effort in the third as they allowed just seven points on a 36-yard touchdown pass late in the quarter. Offensively, the group had trouble holding on to the ball as a pair of fumbles ended two of their drives.
In the fourth period, McPherson seemed to start coming together offensively as they put a few first downs together and then freshman running back Zach Boyd took a handoff 49 yards to the house to give McPherson their first score of the night. The clock struck zeros with the ranked Tigers taking the game 54-7.
There are plenty of things for the young Bulldog squad to work on in their next week of practice. The offense was only able to record six first downs and logged just 115 total yards with 49 coming on one play. Freshman quarterback RJ Garza went 1-of-4 throwing the ball with Ste'fon Walker grabbed the pass for 16 yards. Boyd ended the night with 98 net yards and was followed by DeAvonte Doucet who had 14 on six carries.
On the defensive end of the ball, Preseason All-KCAC athlete Dalton Whitfield racked up a team-high 16 tackles with two sending the Tigers back 14.5 yards; the sophomore also had one forced fumble. Bradley Campbell was second on the team with his 12 tackles and then was followed by newcomer Joseph Mooney who had 11. Strong safety Michael Rabara made his presence known with eight total tackles and one interception on the night. Connor Dean logged the team's lone sack.
McPherson has two weeks until their next contest which comes in Winfield, Kansas as the 'Dogs take on Southwestern College at 6:00 p.m. (CT) on the 19th of September.
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McPherson College is a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference member school and a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
