DALLAS - SMU football is hibernating and the Dallas Cowboys are on strike, but there's going to be a foot ball game here Sunday matching two winning teams.
Southern Methodist University's soccer team risks its 5-2 record and No. 9 national ranking at 3 p.m. Sunday at Ownby Stadium.
Pan American University's Broncs, riding a 4-2 record and two-game winning streak, will challenge SMU in soccer for what is believed to the first time ever. Coach Eloy Moran says playing the Mustangs means "We'll find out where we are in national soccer."
Celebrating its 60th birthday as a college this year, Pan American named its first athletic teams the Broncs in 1927. An early coach came from SMU. He liked the Mustangs--so the Broncs were born.
SMU is a major factor in NCAA Division I soccer. Pan American is making its first try against a major soccer opponent. SMU opened the season with four straight 2-1 games, losing at Evansville and Indiana, then winning over UCLA and Nevada--Las Vegas.
The young Mustangs of Coach Schellas Hydman then came home to win three straight over TCU, 5-2; North Texas in overtime, 4-1; and Tulsa, 3-0. Because the NCAA decided SMU couldn't have a football team this year, soccer became a major fall sport at SMU. The home soccer opener attracted 3,500 fans against North Texas.
Larry McPhail, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, tops SMU in scoring with six goals and three assists. SMU starts two freshmen and is rebuilding. SMU's No. 4 national ranking last year came on a 15-2-2 record. Pan American went 13-1-1 last year, but against a lesser schedule.
Sunday's game originally was scheduled for 2 p.m. It was moved to 3 so the women's soccer teams from Texas A&M and Metro State of Colorado can meet at 1 p.m. on the same field.
SMU's squad averages 5-10 in height and 157 pounds. Pan American doesn't have a player, out of 16, who is six feet tall. The Broncs average 5-8 and 144 pounds.
Short but quick, Pan American recovered from losing its home opener to Incarnate Word, 3-1. The Broncs then defeated Texas Lutheran, 8-0, and won at Sam Houston State, 3-2. They lsot at Houston Baptist, 5-4, then beat St. Edward's, 6-2, and Trinity, 3-1.
Salvador Garcia, a 5-7 sophomore from Brownsville, tops Pan American with eight goals.
