Joe Lopez has been tabbed as the next Head Men's and Women's Soccer Coach at Manhattan Christian College. Coach Lopez comes to the Thunder after serving as the Head Soccer Coach at Temple Christian Academy in Flower Mound, Tx during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. A 2020 graduate of Pensacola Christian College, where he served as an assistant coach during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, Lopez comes to Manhattan with experience at the collegiate, club and high school levels and will be tasked with taking over both the Men's and Women's Soccer programs at MCC. 

The women's side of the game the team has been decimated by the pandemic, having only completed one full season during the last two years while on the men's side Lopez will be taking over for NCCAA HOF Coach, Dr. Rick Wright who retired following the 2021 season after one final trip to the National Tournament. 

"We are excited to bring Coach Lopez and his wife, Danielle, onto our campus and into the MCC family. His passion for his student-athletes and desire to see them succeed not only in soccer, but in life and desire to help them grow spiritually was a major selling point for us," commented Jordan Strom, Director of Athletics. 

Coach Lopez has jumped right into the deep end of the pool with both recruiting and scheduling for the 2022 men's and women's seasons. To get in touch with Coach Lopez please reach out to him at Joe.lopez@mccks.edu. 

In the sunshine and the rain the men's soccer team competed at the NCCAA DII National Championships this week in Kissimmee, FL. Game one saw the Thunder take on the #5 seed Bulldogs from Boyce College on Wednesday. Right from the jump the Thunder were on the attack as they mounted the offensive drive. Early attempts to score weren't realized as MCC sailed a couple of attempts and saw one go right off the cross bar. In the 35' minute junior, Corey Bates, was finally able to punch one home to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead that they would take into halftime. MCC would send another one home early in the second half off of a set corner piece as conference MVP, Caden Miller, was able to knock in a header off the service from junior, Ethan Hill. The two goals would be enough as senior, Kord Pearson, kept a clean sheet in goal to give the Thunder a 2-0 win.

With the win MCC matched #1 Bob Jones with a 1-0 record in pool play setting up a Thursday match with the Bruins that would send the winner to the National Championship match. MCC came into the game as underdogs having not advanced to the title game since 2008, the last time they won the championship. The game was played in the mud and rain and Bob Jones made sure to flex their muscle early as Victor Oladipo was able to squeeze one of his three goals in the third minute of play. The Thunder would remain tough and find pay dirt in the 26' off of a set assist from Ethan Hill to Adam Lee to tie up the ball game. The game would remain tied at one until Oladipo scored late in the half to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at the break. 

Out of the break MCC would again score off of a set piece from 25 yards out as Cristian Faz would send one into the box where freshman, Matthew Young, would find the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2. The joy would be short lived as Oladipo would find the back of the net one last time only a minute and seventeen seconds later to give Bob Jones the 3-2 lead. MCC would mount a couple more drives, but came up short as BJU would win the game and advance to the championship. 

"I'm so proud of our effort," stated Head Coach Dr. Rick Wright, "We competed with one of the best teams in the country for 90 minutes and came up one goal short of a chance to play for it all. I couldn't be more proud." 

With the loss the Thunder soccer season comes to an end at 14-7 after winning both the conference regular season and tournament championship. MCC has been ranked in the top 10 all year long and will undoubtedly finish the final poll there as well. This team has the chance to return a majority of their scoring along with a backline that played well as freshmen and sophomores all season long. The future is bright for the men on the pitch. 

The men's soccer team is headed to Florida. On Saturday evening, following the conclusion of the SW Region Championship match, Dr. Rick Wright and the Thunder found out that they had been selected as an at-large bid to the 2021 NCCAA National Championships happening in Kissimmee, Florida on November 16-20. 

"We're honored to have been selected," said Dr. Wright, whose team finished the year with the 4th highest NCCAA Power rating, "It's a goal for each team at the start of the season to be able to compete at the national tournament and these guys earned the right with how they played this year." 

The Thunder earned the #4 overall seed and have been placed in pool A with #1 Bob Jones University (South Carolina) who won the South Region Tournament and #5 Boyce College (Kentucky) winners of the Mid-East Region Tournament. MCC will open up play on Wednesday November 17, at 3:00 pm EST against Boyce College. They will finish pool play up with a match up with Bob Jones on Thursday November 18, at 5:00 pm EST. MCC would need to win their pool to find their way into the 5:30 pm EST NCCAA National Championship match against the winner from pool B. 

"It's not easy at all. Bob Jones is a perennial power at the NCCAA DII level and Boyce has been great all year. We aren't surprised that either team is at the national tournament this season," stated Coach Wright. 

Pool B consists of #2 Randall University (Oklahoma) winners of the Southwest Region, defeating MCC 3-1 last Saturday. #3 Grace Christian University (Michigan) at-large from the Mid-East Region and #6 North Central University (Minnesota) winners of the North Region. Each match will be streamed live on the NCCAA Network.

While in Florida the Thunder student-athletes along with student-athletes from the other five institutions will assist East Lake Elementary in a Turkey Trot fun run as part of the Christian Service Project hosted by the NCCAA. Congratulations to the men's soccer team on their bid to nationals. For more information please check out the NCCAA Website. 

And the hardware continues to roll in for the Manhattan Christian College. 

Over this past weekend, the Men's Soccer team were crowed Conference Champions at the Midwest Christian College Conference Tournament in Ankeny, IA. After a 13-0 crushing over Central Christian College of the Bible in the semifinals game, MCC would then take on the host team, Faith Baptist Bible College, in the championship game. In a well battled match, the Thunder prevail with a 4-0 win. 

The All-Conference Teams were also announce over the weekend. Leading the way and being named MVP of the Conference was freshman midfielder, Caden Miller. First Team All-Conference honors went to senior Angel Vasquez, junior Ethan Hill, sophomore Matthew Young and freshman Cody Couch. Junior Jonathan Moon and freshman Michael Self were named to the second team.  

Manhattan Christian will host the Southwest DII Regional Soccer tournament. The Thunder received the #3 seed for this weekend and will take on #2 Arlington Baptist University at 3:00 pm on Friday in Manhattan.