By Central Christian Athletics
McPherson, Kan. – The Central Christian College women’s soccer team picked up their first positive result in Sooner Athletic Conference action, playing the Oklahoma Panhandle State University Aggies to a 4-4 draw in front of the home faithful on Homecoming.
The Tigers honored their six seniors prior to kickoff, and that seemed to inspire the team coming out of the gate. One of the seniors honored, Mariah Godinez, had herself a day. The scored a hat trick in the first 17 minutes of the game to give the Tigers a commanding 3-0 lead.
The Tigers seemed to be in complete control of the game until the 20th minute when they were called for a foul inside the 18 yard box, and the Aggies were awarded a penalty kick. Their best player, Kelsey Vickrey slotted the attempt to get the Aggies on the board. Vickrey would reek havoc on the Tiger defense throughout the rest of the game, assisting on the three other Aggie goals.
The Aggies scored a second goal in the 23rd minute, but the Tigers responded with an important 4th goal, off the foot of Amaleigh Mattison, with under five minutes to play in the half. They went into the break leading 4-2.
In the second half, the Tigers had a few opportunities slip through their fingers, and the Aggies capitalized, scoring two goals in the half to tie the game at four. The Aggies scored their 4th goal with 20 minutes remaining in the game, giving the Tigers plenty of time to try and come up with a game winner. Samantha Carachure came close late in the game, finding herself behind the Aggie defense and 1 v 1 with the OPSU goal keeper. She fired high, and the Aggie goalkeeper made a brilliant save to keep the game knotted at four.
Katelyn Beckman was in goal for the Tigers, and finished with seven saves.
Coach Macharia commented on the Tigers’ performance saying, “It was the best weather we could have asked for and a great homecoming crowd. We began the game the best way possible way with three goals from senior Mariah Godinez but the pressure from Panhandle caused us to make mistakes that proved costly. From a game that looked easily winnable at 3-0 to 4-4 tie we were quickly reminded we can never rest on our laurels in any game.”
The draw leaves the Tigers at 4-6-1 overall, and 0-3-1 in the SAC. They will be back on the pitch next Friday night in a 5:00 pm match up against Wayland Baptist University at home.
The Central Christian College men’s soccer team picked up their first Sooner Athletic Conference win on Saturday. The Tigers treated the Homecoming crowd to a 2-0 win over the Oklahoma Panhandle State University Aggies.
It was one of the best overall performances of the year for the men in blue as they dominated the time of possession and nearly all of the statistical categories. The only category the Aggies had the edge in was saves, 4 to 1, because the Tigers outshot them 12 to 3, and shots on goal, 6 to 1.
Both of the Tiger goals came in the opening half, the first coming in the 14th minute when Mattia Cola took a shot that was saved by the Aggie goalkeeper, but the rebound fell right at the feet of Nicholas Arenare who cleaned up the trash. Just over three minutes later, Lucas Chirife, who was dialed in all day with his free kicks, served up a beautiful ball off of a corner kick. Riccardo Di Vincenzo appeared to get just enough of the ball to deflect it off of one of the Aggie defenders into the back of the net.
For the final 73 minutes of the game, the Tigers continued to press forward, but they were more concerned with preserving the clean sheet, and taking their three points. The Tiger defense was on point, and they held the Aggies to just three shots, one of them on goal, the rest of the match.
Coach Hoxie summed up the win saying, “That was a really good game from the boys today. Their energy was relentless, had the necessary work rate, were unified in their character, and didn’t get caught up into any shantankery. Really proud of them. Tactically, once we got the 2nd goal, it was about waiting for the clock to tick and seeing the game out. We always looked like scoring the third goal before our opponents, but keeping them at nil was the priority. It was 3 points well deserved”
He added, “Time to rest up, we’ve got our bye week, so we’ll use that time to recovery, get some school work done, and watch some film. Got a huge game next Friday night vs WBU, but we’ll spend the weekend enjoying the victory.”
The win moves the Tigers to 6-3-3 overall, and 1-2-1 in the SAC. As Coach Hoxie alluded to, the Tigers’ next opponent is Wayland Baptist University at home on Friday night.
