Oldest Record in the Book: Harding Fires 54 Shots in Win over Williams Baptist

This is the 10th in a series of stories about the oldest records at Harding University. Today's record is from Harding men's soccer, and it will spotlight the oldest team records.

Men's soccer began at Harding in 2000, with the oldest individual record coming in only the third game when Luke Boren scored four goals and added as assist for a school-record nine points against Freed-Hardeman. Boren played only five games for the Bisons in 2000 and scored 10 goals.

Harding's two oldest team records both came in a game two years later, in 2002, against Williams Baptist.

The Bisons had a rough start to the season with four losses and a tie in their first five games, but Harding collected its first win in game six in a big way. Seven different players scored for Harding, including three-goal games by Ben Faris and Brian Day, and the Bisons won 11-0. It was the first time Harding scored more than 10 goals in a game.

The records set in that game, still on the books, included 12 assists for Harding and 54 shots.

Current Harding head coach Jon Ireland led the way with four assists with two coming in each half. No other Harding men's player has ever had four assists in a game.

Harding's 54 shots in the game remains the only time the Bisons shot more than 50 times. The Bisons shot 45 times in a 17-0 win over Rust in 2008, the second-highest total.

Fifteen different Bisons attempted a shot with Faris shooting 10 times to score his three goals. Harding had 30 shots in the first half and 24 in the second half. Williams Baptist goalkeeper Jeff Medcalf made 14 saves on Harding's 25 shots on goal. Williams Baptist managed only two shots in the game, both in the second half.

Note: Harding finished the 2002 season 7-10-2 overall. Faris led the team with 13 goals and 73 shots. Jon Ireland led the team with eight assists.

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