Men’s soccer splits early season games
Thunderbird vs. Matadors
The men’s soccer team suffered a 3-1 loss to the Western Arizona Matadors Wednesday night at Riggs Stadium.
The Thunderbirds started the half off slowly, allowing two goals, but came back aggressively in the second half with the team’s lone goal coming from sophomore Leland Hildebrand.
This is the second game of the men’s soccer season and their record is 1-1.
Head coach Andrew Guarneri was pleased with the win earlier in the week, but voiced concern over the Thunderbirds efforts against the Matadors.
“We gave up two opportunities we shouldn’t have, we have to fix the things we didn’t do well and try to get better.”
They play the Matadors again on Sept. 30, and hope to split the season. Guarneri would like to see more energy in the team’s next game against Pima Community College.
With 18 games in the season, the Thunderbirds have ample opportunity to continue to grow as a team.
Admission to all MCC athletics is free for MCC students. Adults are $5, students with and I.D., kids and seniors are $3. Online ticket purchase is available at www.thunderbirdathletics.com, where buyers can save $1 on each ticket purchased.
Thunderbirds vs. Aztecs
Goal! A term used often in Friday night when MCC’s Thunderbirds took on Pima’s Aztecs.
This was an exciting battle from the start, with MCC jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead at just the 20th minute mark in the first quarter.
The kick from the corner, by Forrest Larson, was deflected off the corner bar and went in.
After a good half the T-birds were in control, and didn’t plan on letting up in the second half.
MCC scored again when Pima goalie knocked the ball in trying to make a difficult save, at both the 6th 14th minute marks.
Giving the T-birds a healthy 3-0 lead late in the second half, with just minutes to play Pima finally got a point on the board to keep from being shutout.
Coach Guarneri said, “The energy was a lot better than last games, and they played with better organization and focus on winning.”
This season MCC’s men’s soccer has a record of 2-1. Based on Friday’s game they’ll only get better.
The bleachers were packed with parents, students, and screaming fans alike.
Also present were “Poo Crews” supporting No. 5 Jace Kennev, and when asked what a “Poo Crew” does, they simply replied, “We cheer for Jace Poo!”
Thunderbirds vs. Rough Riders
Away was the name of the game this Labor Day.
Thunderbird’s mens soccer took on the Yavapai’s Roughriders the 7 time champions at Prescott Vally.
The match up kicked off at 6:00 pm with about 150 to 200 spectators watching the game.
The game was evenly matched but yavapai took the lead at the 30th min of the first half leadign it to a 1-0 game.
MCC never gave up and had a few good scoring opportunities but they just didn’t want to go in.
Ariia Pike, Kevin Holloway, and Garrett Muggy contributed to this story.
