Men’s soccer sweeps McPherson 7-0
Photo description: The men’ soccer team gathers to ring the victory bell following their match
Photo credit: Esther Molina
Madeline Peters
Sports Editor
It was a battle of the Bulldogs Saturday evening with the Concordia men’s soccer team destroying McPherson College 7-0 in Bulldog Stadium.
The first half went fantastically for Concordia with five goals for the home team. Senior Izzy Shaddick and freshman Ferdi Hagan each scored one goal in the 10th and 15th minutes respectively and freshman Okan Erkocu scored two in the 16th and 32nd. The last goal of the half was an own goal by McPherson in the 38th. It occurred as junior Ryan Wokutch fought to get the ball past a McPherson player and the ball hit off the opposing player into the goal.
The second half was not as goal-heavy as the first, but was still a strong performance for Concordia. There were two goals in the half with 24 attempted shots. The first goal for the half came when Concordia was awarded a penalty kick. Wokutch took the kick and sniped the ball past the McPherson goalie to score the sixth goal of the game in the 86th. In the 88th, freshman Kai Olbrich tapped the ball through to score the seventh and final goal.
Junior Martin Herrera led the team in shots with eight. He also led in shots on goal with four. Concordia outshot McPherson 41-2 and took 16 corner kicks compared to McPherson’s two. Junior goalie Gabriel Mendoza had a relatively easy night with only one save. McPherson’s goalie Camden Wiseman, meanwhile, had 14 total saves for the game.
Coach Jason Weides thought it was a great chance to show the depth of Concordia’s bench with the strong game for the team. He said, “I thought it was a good performance from the start to the end. It’s good when we’re able to play a lot of guys and get some guys who have been playing really well and maybe haven’t gotten as many minutes an opportunity [to play], and score some goals in the process.”
For Weides, the goal of the game today was to enhance their skills, saying, “We expect that we try to improve from our previous performance and that’s our goal. Ultimately, whether you score one goal or you score seven, you’re trying to improve. I think we just focus on what we’re doing instead of the result and the guys did a good job of that today.”
The men’s team remains undefeated with a 5-0 record. The team travels to Atchison, Kansas to face Benedictine College on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
