SEWARD, Neb. – Sophomore Tyler Jensen recorded his second career hat trick in leading a homecoming party that congregated at the Mount Marty goal. The Concordia University men’s soccer team sent the visiting Lancers back home with an 11-0 defeat on Saturday night inside Bulldog Stadium.
It was a nice response to a 4-1 loss at Bellevue University three days earlier for ninth-year head coach Jason Weides’ squad. Concordia is off to a 3-1 start in conference play for the second time in four seasons. It is now 6-3-2 overall.
“One of the things we were looking for was for the team that showed up tonight would beat the team that showed up on Wednesday,” Weides said. “I think we did a good job of doing that. I thought we started strong. It was just a good team performance. Whether they started or came off the bench, everybody contributed in a great way.”
Jensen pushed his season goal count to four by rattling each of his goals off less than 28 minutes into the contest. He began the onslaught with a fourth-minute goal before things quickly got out of hand. Carlos Ferrer and Micah Lehenbauer added a pair of goals apiece and four others had exactly one goal: Matthew Ho, Ray Villegas, Jonathan Dominguez and Dan Stephens.
Concordia outshot struggling Mount Marty (2-10, 0-4 GPAC), 29-3. The Bulldogs peppered goalkeeper Renzo Stainer with 18 shots on frame.
No matter the opponent, a three-goal game always feels good.
“It was just unreal. My family’s here. They got to see it,” said Jensen, a native of Renton, Wash. “It was really good to see that.”
Twenty-six different players saw action, including three goalkeepers for the Bulldogs. Mark Horsburgh relinquished his spot in goal after 32 minutes. Concordia ran off nine goals before 40 minutes had passed as part of the blowout.
Jensen was especially efficient with his shots. He needed only four shots to find the back of the net three times. Ferrer took a team high five shots. Fifteen Bulldogs fired off at least one shot.
The Bulldogs will get another crack at a nationally-ranked opponent when No. 22 Midland (10-2-1, 3-1 GPAC) invades Seward on Wednesday. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. CT. It will be a rematch of last year’s GPAC semifinal that ended with Concordia celebrating victory in a penalty kick shootout.