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Metro's NCAA hopes take a hit
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather A. Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu Metro forward Antonio Porras jukes a Colorado School of Mines defender Oct. 20 at Auraria Field. The ‘Runners fell short to the ‘Diggers in a 1-0 loss that dropped them to third place in RMAC standings. Porras, who is the only Metro senior player, celebrated his last game at Auraria Field with two goals and an assist and left the field to a standing ovation in the second half.

Dating back to Oct. 1, the Metro men’s soccer team had given up one goal in six contests while going 5-0-1. That is the kind of play the NCAA soccer committee looks at to decide if Metro is worthy to enter the NCAA Tournament in November.

Another factor is quality wins, and the Roadrunners may have hurt their NCAA bid in a tough 1-0 loss to the Colorado School of Mines Oct. 20 at Auraria Field. Before the game Metro stood in second place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, with Mines one game back in third.

“I don’t know if (the loss) changes things so dramatically that we’re out of the mix,” head coach Ken Parsons said. “I think that right now what the committee is looking at is that we played Mines twice, and we split with them,” Parsons added, referring to a 2-1 win Sept. 8.

The Roadrunners outplayed the ’Diggers (13-6-1, 9-3 RMAC) in overall shots (11-6), shots on goal (7-2) and corner kick opportunities (7-2). But Metro watched those opportunities fall by the wayside as the score remained tied at nil after the first half of play.

“When you have a game with that much implication on it, you tend to go into it a little bit hesitantly,” Parsons said. “You’re playing not to lose versus playing to win, and I think that’s the situation we put ourselves in.”

Parsons added that his team created a ton of early chances that could have put them into position to win in the second half, but they didn’t come through. That came back to hurt them as Mines played a much better second half and got the goal to send Metro to its first loss since Sept. 29, a 5-0 beating from Incarnate Word in San Antonio.

The ’Diggers goal came in the 77th minute, when forward Mas Neverman made his way into the middle of the field and hit a shot past Metro goalkeeper Jordan Ivey.

The goal was unassisted and was Neverman’s fifth of the season.

The goal seemed to take the air out of the ’Runners as they managed only one shot on goal in the last 12 minutes. Heads hung low after the game, as if the ’Runners’ season was already over. But there was one match left to go in the regular season they could ill afford to lose.

The last game of the season came Oct. 22 against the winless Cougars (0-16-2, 0-12 RMAC) of Colorado Christian. It was an opportunity for Metro to not only regain their scoring attack, but to find that skip in their step before the RMAC tournament.

Metro skipped all day long as they put up six goals on the Cougars, including two from senior midfielder Antonio Porras, who played his last game at Auraria Field. Midfielder Shaun Elbaum scored the opening goal, which was the game winner, in the 20th minute. It was his 11th on the season, and he later scored his 12th on a cross header past the goalie in the 28th minute.

“It probably won’t hit me until a few days after practice,” Porras said regarding how he felt playing at Metro for the last time. “It will be different. But we just need to stay focused, that’s the main thing. Try and not let any distractions come in (before the RMAC tournament).”

Porras scored the team’s fourth and fifth goals while assisting on the sixth, when Philip Owens found the back of the net in the 56th minute. As soon as Porras’ assist occurred, Parsons took his star player out of the game, and a small round of clapping ensued as Porras walked off Auraria Field for the last time. Porras owns Metro’s career marks of goals (46), assists (34) and points (126).

“Most teams would be very happy knowing that they only lost one senior,” Parsons said. “But when that senior is Tony Porras, who is a very big part of your production on offense, obviously it’s going to hurt.

“When you have a marquee player like Tony, losing that one senior will be tough to overcome.”

A new season begins for the Roadrunners as they travel to Durango to make some noise in the RMAC tournament. Metro will begin the tourney with a rematch against the ’Diggers. The game is set for Oct. 27 at 11:30 a.m. at Ray Dennison Memorial Field. The winner of the match will take on the winner of the Fort Lewis/CSU-Pueblo game Oct. 29.