Saturday afternoon Barclay College took to the pitch to kick off their season with a Midwest Christian College Conference match against Calvary Bible College (Belton, MO). The Bears were coming off a strong showing in their exhibition match the Tuesday prior in addition to adding three elite, experienced players to their roster as Senior Aaron Colliatie (Bel Aire, KS), Junior Kingsley Assibey (Accra, Ghana), and last year’s MCCC Most Valuable Player, Sophomore Melvin Lara (Katy, TX), were all cleared for competition to lead the Bears to a 7-1 victory in front of the home crowd.

From the get go, the Bears controlled the action as the ball rarely found its way down to their defensive end. In the 9th minute, Freshman Julio Cobo (Katy, TX) played a beautiful cross to Freshman Tyler Wright (Mulvane, KS) who headed in the first goal of the match. Then in the 27th minute, Julio Cobo added another goal as the Bears continued to maintain possession and work through the Warriors defense. Assibey, in his first action since last year, netted the next two goals. The first was in the 37th minute and his second was in the first minute coming out of halftime, when he received a well played ball from Freshman Josh Moore (Houston, TX).

Freshman defensive back Isaiah Shine (Katy, TX) made a nice run in 54th minute to score his first goal of the season as Moore picked up his second assist of the game. Moore’s third assist of the game came when Lara calmly scored in the 60th minute. Junior Sam Thompson (Wichita, KS) finished off the scoring from distance in the 88th minute.

The win moved the Bears to 1-0 on the season as they look to take on two talented teams in their next two outings. On Sept. 2nd they begin NCCAA Southwest Region play when Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College (Moore, OK) comes to town for a 7:00 PM CST start. Then on Thursday, September 4th at 7:30 PM CST, MCCC powerhouse Manhattan Christian College (Manhattan, KS) will visit Haviland in a crucial early season match.