Springfield, Missouri – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team saw one of the best seasons in program history come to a close on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The fourth-seeded Bears fell on penalty kicks to fifth-seeded Missouri State by a final tally of 5-4.
Central Arkansas (7-7-3) controlled the ball early, getting a shot on goal from sophomore
Daltyn Knutson in just the second minute. The Bears found the match's first goal in the eighth minute, when junior
William Woody played a ball through the Missouri State (8-7-3) back line to senior
Wes Carson, who took a touch, leapt over a sliding defender, beat MSU keeper Liam Priestly, and slid a shot past another defender to the back post, putting Central Arkansas up 1-0 with his sixth goal of the year.
As with the last meeting between the two teams, the goal energized Missouri State, who controlled the ball for the remainder of the match. They would find an equalizer in the 27
th minute, when Emmerich Hoagg slipped a pass to Jake Laired, who teed the ball up for Jack Buckle. Buckle fired a laser to the top-left corner to even the match at 1-1. It looked like Missouri State would get a go-ahead goal in the 58
th minute, when Jack Griffin beat UCA keeper
Marc Olsen, but sophomore
Chris Holmes read the play perfectly and knocked the shot away for the team save. Central Arkansas would get a decent look in the waning second of the match, but senior
Jordan Bates' attempt went wide, sending the match to overtime.
With neither side able to find the golden goal in OT, the match headed to penalty kicks. Senior
Alejandro Moquete led off for Central Arkansas and converted, as did Griffin for MSU. Junior
Pepe San Roman saw his attempt saved, while James Routledge scored to give Missouri State the 2-1 lead after two kicks each. Knutson and Buckle each converted in the third round, while sophomore
Christian Ilia buried his kick in the fourth round. Hoagg stepped up to the spot to take Missouri State's first kick, but Olsen made the save to send it to the fifth round tied at 3-3. Freshman
Niklas Brodacki buried his attempt in the bottom-right corner, and MSU's Tyler Swanner answered with a make of his own to send the match to sudden-death. Sophomore
Joey Kampmann sent his attempt over the crossbar, opening the door for MSU's Mike Lightbourne, who scored to the top-left to send Missouri State through to the semifinals.
"It's a brutal way to end a season," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan after the match. "The guys are gutted because they gave us everything tonight; and really, they've been giving us everything all season. We had great performances all around tonight, but a lot of the credit need to go to the three seniors who played tonight. Wes got us got us rolling early with his goal, but also never let down all game. Jordan was fearless in the back and was able to withstand a ton of pressure from their attacking player. And Alejandro came on and gave us great minutes tonight. He buried his penalty, but he also put in a ton of work to get us to that point."
Duncan concluded by saying, "It obviously sucks to lose, but the turnaround by this group has been amazing. They've transformed themselves into a program to be feared an one that will win a lot of games in the coming years. We've got some great momentum to build from going into the offseason."
On the night, the Bears got shots on goal from Carson, Ilia, and Knutson. In goal, Olsen made three saves. Following the match, Carson was named to the All-Tournament Team.
The loss ends one of the best seasons in program history, with the Bears winning multiple MVC matches for the first time. The Bears placed their names in the top ten of 19 statistical categories, and rolled off a six-match unbeaten streak, easily the longest in program Division I history.
