Men's soccer ends season as RMAC champions
by Donald Smith
The Metropolitan
The Metro men's soccer team's season officially ended Monday afternoon when the NCAA tournament committee left the Roadrunners out of the three-team tournament. Fort Lewis, Northeastern State and Southwest Conference Champions Incarnate Word will move on to play for a shot at the national title.
File Photo The Metropolitan
Junior Phillip Owen helps Metro win the RMAC Conference Championship Sunday, Nov. 7, in Durango, Colo. Along with sophomore Tony Porras, Owen scored to beat CSU Peublo 2-0. Owen was named Tournament MVP.
"It's unfortunate that we didn't make it in ... but on the bright side, we ended up winning (the) RMAC and we ended on a good note," said Roadrunner forward Nagui Sabbagh about the team not making the Regional Tournament.
Although Metro's national tournament dreams were crushed for the second consecutive season, they did take home the Rocky Mountain Championship trophy for the second straight season after defeating Colorado School of Mines on penalty kicks Nov. 5 and the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves 2-0 on Sunday, Nov. 7.
"We all really wanted to win and we were really focused on what we were doing. We had (the) determination and we knew we had to win; there was no tomorrow. We still had some hope to go to Regionals, so we just put everything on the line and just ... played, we just played," said Metro midfielder Aldo Alcaraz Reza about the team going into the playoffs.
Metro started the tournament on Friday as the Roadrunners went into the match looking to avenge an earlier season loss to the Orediggers.
The Roadrunners had to survive an early string of Mines' attacks as all four of the 'Diggers first-half shots were on net. Goalkeeper David McReavy stopped them all to give his team the opportunity to put home the opening strike and in the 37th minute, sophomore forward and tournament MVP Phillip Owen netted the first and only goal of the half off a junior midfielder Aldo Alcaraz-Reza pass.
After returning from the break, up 1-0, Owen would try to put home the dagger, scoring in the 57th minute when midfielder and all-tournament team member Preston Borrego assisted on Owen's second goal of the match.
"In the tournament, in the first half, we just (ran) them all over the place; we only scored one goal, but we were all over them. They couldn't score a goal; we were just coming at them the whole first half," said Alcaraz-Reza.
Everything was going in the Roadrunners' favor in the second half being up two goals and not much more than half an hour remaining. Mines decided to make it a game in the 60th minute as Oredigger forward Rafael Ribeiro scored unassisted to help dig his team from out of its two-goal hole.
The comeback would be completed a little under four minutes later as the 'Diggers scored the equalizer in the 63rd minute of the match after forward Matt Dixon knocked home a tally from midfielder Brian Hart.
Metro and Mines then played a little more than 46 minutes of scoreless soccer when the overtime whistle blew. The Roadrunners won in penalty kicks 3-1, advancing to play the Thunderwolves Nov 7.
Alcaraz-Reza said the team came out in the second half with the same type of attitude and intensity they did in the first half, but after they scored their second goal of the match, they started looking ahead to Sunday's game and that's when the Orediggers came back.
After an upset victory, the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwovles looked to get some revenge of their own when they took on Metro last Sunday in Durango, Colo.
"Against Pueblo, it was a very uneven match. I mean, we just...killed them, erased them from the field. We should've scored six goals, at least," said Alcaraz-Reza.
Metro looked to end the game early as they came after the Thunderwolves out-shooting CSU-Pueblo 10-2, but to no avail as the 'Runners and 'Wolves went into the half tied at zero.
Four minutes into the second half, Phillip Owen scored the game winner as defensive back Chad Pearson and midfielder Garrett Sadusky combined on the assist in the 49th minute of the contest.
The Roadrunners survived the mini rush of the Thunderwolves only to put the game out of reach and the conference crown in their trophy case in the 75th minute as Antonio Porras scored off a David Gordon assist. Metro ended their season similar to the one before it: with the RMAC title.
"It's just a great win...we didn't expect to be playing CSU-Pueblo, but we knew we had to win; (we) concentrated on CSU-Pueblo and defeating them and then came out with a 2-0 victory," said Sabbagh about the game. |
