By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  Landon Moore’s sophomore year at Western Christian was really interesting looking back following signing his Letter of Intent to play with Corban University Tuesday.  With only 12 players to their name that year, the challenges to stay healthy and perform at the highest level they can was there.

And they succeeded in doing both, going 10-6-3 overall and finishing second in the 3A/2A/1A Special District 2 conference with a 8-3-3 league record.

“Junior year was hard. We only had 12 guys and had to scrape together some guys that haven’t even played together. But we still made it work and we’re able to make it to state. This year is the year that western can win the league. As well as make a deep run in the playoffs,” Moore said.  “We had a core group of solid guys and even though we didn’t have really any subs we still won games and took 2nd in league still. It took a lot of heart and effort from our guys.”

The Pioneers reached the State Quarterfinals before falling to St. Mary’s of Medford 5-0 that year.  The following year Western Christian had a near identical record going 10-6-2 overall with a 9-3-2 league record, reaching the postseason for the fifth-straight year in 2019 and six of the last seven.

For Moore, after this year he’ll be reuniting with his former coach from seventh-grade ball at Capital FC with Tim Kagey and will be joining some people he’s played with in the past.  Kagey took over the Warriors Men’s Program from Aaron Lewis, who helped set the tone for the Corban program the six years he was at the helm of the program. 

Kagey had led the Corban program to the first round of the NAIA Playoffs in his first season as Moore had seen his dream of playing collegiate soccer come to fruition.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play college soccer and after going to a few ID camps over these past few months corban was the one school that really showed the passion and love that they have for the game of soccer,” said Moore.  “A couple of my old teammates also play on the team and that’s also cool to know. I’m very excited to play for them as they are a top program at the NAIA level!”