Six goals from six different Buccaneers paved the way to the first home victory of 2023 for the Blinn College men’s soccer team Tuesday at Rankin Field inside Hohlt Park in Brenham, Texas.
The Bucs earned a 6-0 victory over Ronin Soccer Club to improve to 2-1 overall this fall.
Blinn was coming off a tough road loss at Hill College on Aug. 19, and head coach Michael McBride said he was impressed with his team’s return effort Tuesday.
“I was very pleased with our bounceback from the disappointment last week; the lads brought a different level of energy tonight and that was the difference,” McBride said. “We had a clean sheet (shutout) with six goals, so I couldn’t be happier. Plus, we managed to get everybody on the field and get them some good, in-game learning.”
(Pictured: Blinn College’s Flynn Toon, right, fires a shot around a Ronin Soccer Club defender for the first goal of the match Tuesday, Aug. 22)
Blinn outshot Ronin SC 24-7 with a 13-1 edge in shots on goal and an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Sophomore defender Flynn Toon started the scoring in the 14th minute when he took a feed from freshman defender Philipp Mokwa and turned it into a goal near the top-left corner of the box.
Freshman midfielder Cesar Duran turned assists from sophomore midfielder Joshua Hernandez-Gutierrez and freshman midfielder Mathew Williams into a goal in the 35th minute as Blinn took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
After the break, sophomore forward David Garcia scored in the 51st minute on a give from freshman midfielder Diego Ramos and sophomore midfielder Jay Hernanez. The tally was the 38th point of Garcia’s career at Blinn, placing him fourth all time in program history.
Sophomore defender Elliott Hadley scored in the 53rd minute on an assist from Toon, and sophomore midfielder Tom Hooper assisted sophomore forward Dafe Akpoguma on his goal in the 78th minute.
(Pictured: Blinn College’s David Garcia sends a shot toward the goal during a match against Ronin Soccer Club on Tuesday, Aug. 22)
Duran and Hernandez-Gutierrez teamed to assist freshman forward Reynaldo Cantu on the match’s final goal in the 89th minute of play.
In goal for the Bucs was freshman keeper Noah LeMaster, who made one save while earning his second victory of the season.
“For him to have a clean sheet this evening, that means a lot for him,” McBride said of LeMaster.
Blinn will look to make it back-to-back wins when they visit Dallas College Cedar Valley at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26 in Lancaster, Texas. Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 44 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
