It stands to reason that Allen Community College’s soccer teams would rely on a pair of familiar faces to headline their Sophomore Day festivities Saturday.
The Red Devil women completed their first ever undefeated regular season with a 5-0 romp over visiting Southeast Community College.
And who else was there to lead them than Dot Usher, who has rewritten the Red Devil record books this season. Her hat trick against Southeast marked the fifth time this season the Allen sophomore has scored three goals in a game.
Then, the Allen men apparently decided to mimic the women’s success, also rattling off a 5-0 win. And, like Usher before him, Allen’s Jordan Mase blasted three first half goals to lead the charge. This marked the first hat trick of the year for the ACC men’s leading scorer.
“I’ve been waiting for it all season,” Mase said. “For it to come on the last day, obviously it was special to get one.”
With the regular season in tow, both squads are assured of a home match to start the postseason next weekend. The Red Devil women are assured of the top seed, courtesy of their outright Jayhawk Conference-Division II title. The men are assured of at least a share of the crown.
With their conference opponents still scrambling to complete their regular season schedules this week, ACC’s playoff opponents may not be known until after Wednesday.
As it stands, the ACC women will play at home Saturday; the men on Sunday — unless their opponents hail from the same college.
Regardless, both of ACC’s coaches are excited for the opportunity that awaits.
“If we can score early, we’ve got a chance to go a long way,” said Doug Desmarteau, who coaches the men’s team.
“We’re just making sure we have everyone ready and prepared,” ACC women’s head coach Jeremy McGinnis said. “We’ll be ready for next Saturday.”
Mase wasted little time in getting things rolling in the men’s contest. Most of the crowd had barely settled into its collective seats when he found the back of the net in the game’s third minute.
Tiago Troyano was next, pushing the lead to 2-0 less than eight minutes later on a feed from David Almeida.
Mase then put the game out of reach with 18:43 left in the first half and then capped his hat trick with a goal in the 59th minute to make it 4-0.
Almeida’s penalty kick in the 64th minute capped the scoring.
“We put a good performance together,” Mase said. “It pretty much sums up the season we’ve had. Once we got a goal, the momentum shifted into our favor.”
