One Goal Sticks
DALLAS, TX – The MCC Men’s soccer team will be playing for pride on Sunday morning.
The dream of a National Championship ended Saturday afternoon when Triton (Ill) College beat the Cougars 1-0 in the NJCAA Division III National Tournament Semi-Final Saturday afternoon in Dallas, Texas.
Midfielder Rodrigo Avolos redirected an Eric Herrera cross with his head 20:31 into the second half for the game’s lone goal. MCC controlled the final 25 minutes, but could not solve Triton keeper Ben Gomez, who made several big saves and denied Jemmy Cange, Division III’s leading scorer, from close range in the game’s waning minutes.
“They were powerfull,” Triton Head Coach Tom Cholewa said of Manchester. “Number 10 (Cange) is a big time player. We contained him, that’s probably the best way to describe it, trying to double as much as possible. When he faced us up he was dangerous.”
Triton moves on the National Championship game on Sunday at 1:30 pm against Herkimer CC, who eliminated County College of Morris, NJ.2-1 in overtime Saturday evening. MCC will play Morris in the consolation game at 10am Sunday.
“In the second half, we finally started to get to them,” MCC Coach Jim Insinga said of his team’s valiant effort. “We started moving people up a little bit and started to put more pressure on their backs and we outshot them maybe 4 to 1 in the second half, but their goalkeeper just made some outstanding saves.”
Manchester (17-3-1) out shot its opponent 12-9 while Jeff Gregor made eight saves for the Cougars. Triton (13-5) controlled the first 45 minutes, but was under heavy pressure in the second half, especially after taking the lead.
“Maybe we went into the shell too early,” Cholewa said of his team’s second half play. “We just ran out of legs at the end.”
The game winner came on an un-cleared ball following a corner kick.
“That was a professional goal, a spectacular goal,” Insinga said. “It was a nice cross. We had been warned to be careful because these guys create a lot of crosses and a lot of corner kicks and they are very, very good at them. Low and behold, that’s what beat us.”
Avolos, who was stationed fifteen feet from the net on the far side, put his head on the cross, and the ball accelerated into the net. Gregor never had a chance.
“Gregor worked hard, Jemmy worked hard, Frank Busumbru, Joe Danso…all of them worked hard and my hat is off to all of the players on the team” Insinga said after his team was shut out for just the first time this fall. “They did one outstanding job this year.”
Insinga described his players as “a good group of kids, a tough, talented group of kids” and will get a chance to see them one more time Sunday morning when they play for pride.
Men’s College Soccer
At Richland College, Dallas, TX
Triton (Ill.) College 1 Manchester Community College 0
Triton College (14-4) 0 1 1
MCC (17-3-1) 0 0 0
Goals: T – Rodrigo Avolos. Saves: T – Ben Gomez 11; M – Jeff Gregor 8.
