Mesa Legend - SPORTS - Men’s soccer striving for playoff position

December 6, 2005
SPORTS
MCC football edges rival Scottsdale in final seconds

Chris Ramirez
Mesa Legend

It is a good thing there are 60 minutes in a football game because the MCC football team needed every second this season.
Their final four games of the 2005 campaign were all decided in the final minutes with the difference in scores between Mesa and their opponents never more than four points.
The excitement began on Oct. 15, when Mesa traveled to top-ranked Glendale Community College.
It was a shoot out that the Thunderbirds nearly won, except their final drive came to a stall after quarterback, Colton Malone, threw an interception allowing GCC to win their homecoming game, 40-37.
The next two weeks saw Mesa return home for bouts against Arizona Western and Eastern Arizona Colleges.
The homecoming game against Arizona Western was a near disaster as MCC fell behind 11-0 early after two punts went over the head of Matt Barnard for safeties.
However, a pair of interceptions by Latron Hickson and two touchdowns by Kenny Mahone, led the home team back into the game.
The game winning touchdown came on a 4th down pass from Malone to Marko Mitchell for 47 yards. Mahone was named the WSFL Offensive Player of the Week for his heroics.
A different approach was taken by MCC against Eastern as they stuck to the running game and rode freshman, Chad Baniecki, to victory on his three-touchdown day. The final score was 27-26.
Baniecki’s effort allowed him to be named the WSFL Offensive Player of the Week, the second consecutive week a Thunderbird received the honor. Not to be outdone, defensive lineman Jordan Stone was tagged as the NJCAA’s Defensive Player of the Week for his stellar play in the same game.
The season came to an end in the final week of play against Scottsdale Community College, who had won the previous three games in this series.
The early afternoon game got off to an ugly start when the opening drive by Mesa ended with a missed field goal after Vincent Anderson dropped a touchdown pass.
Scottsdale faired no better by fumbling on their first drive and then throwing an interception on their next.
Yet, Mesa was up 13-0 at the end of the first quarter after a pair of Malone touchdown passes to Mahone and Ryan Combs. Two second-quarter touchdowns by Will Marc, who had a total of three on the day, led SCC back into the game, which saw Mesa leading at the half, 26-22.
After both teams traded multiple scores in the second half, Scottsdale had pulled ahead 42-33, and looked to have control of the game. However, the Thunderbird defense hung tough and kept SCC out of the end zone for the duration of the game. That allowed the Mesa offense to get back into the game with Malone finding Mitchell for the second time, this time on a nine yard strike to bring the score to 40-42, Scottsdale.
The play of the game, and the season for that matter, came with less than a minute left after Mesa had driven the ball down to Scottsdale’s 35 yard line.
After contemplating a 50-yard field goal attempt for the win on 4th and 17, Coach Dan Dunn sent back out his offense. The ensuing play had Malone flushed out of the pocket and throwing up the ball as he was hit, with a diving Mahone grabbing it in the end zone. The extra point was good as Mesa went on to defeat Scottsdale, 46-42.
Overall, the season was deemed successful by Dunn, referencing their improved record from a year ago, beating SCC, and the 11 Mesa players either named to the NJCAA All-Region team, or were honorable mentions.