May 11 Mineral Area College at Sedalia

The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners picked up a 1-0 quarterfinal victory in the Region 16 Tournament over Mineral Area College on Tuesday, May 11 at the Fred E. Davis Sports Complex.

While both teams had opportunities to score in the opening half, the match remained scoreless at halftime. SFCC finally got on the scoreboard when midfielder Tebello Ntene of Lesotho drew a foul inside the box. Ntene was successful on the penalty kick to put his team up 1-0 with less than 31 minutes remaining in the contest. The SFCC defense preserved the shut out to close out the victory.

"We will take a win in the postseason anyway it comes," said SFCC Soccer Head Coach Jaime Beltran. "At the end of the day, we were able to get the win, so I'm satisfied. This is the first playoff win for our men's program."

Ntene registered a team-high five shots, three on goal. As a team, SFCC took 21 shots, nine of which were on goal.

Goalkeeper Breno Prado of Brazil made three saves and recorded the shutout for SFCC.

May 15 St. Louis Community College at St. Louis

SFCC (4-4-3) saw their season come to an end, losing to St. Louis Community College in the Region 16 Tournament semifinal round 3-2 in double overtime on May 15 in St. Louis.

Midfielder Zakariya Abdi of Houston, Texas got SFCC on the scoreboard first. St. Louis responded with a pair of goals, one of which was on a penalty kick to take a 2-1 lead into halftime.

Abdi scored a goal early in the second half to tie the game, until St. Louis scored off another penalty kick to earn the victory.

"We made a mistake that led to one goal," said Beltran. "There were two very questionable penalty kicks that were given to St. Louis. I feel like we won that game everywhere except for the scoreboard. Considering that we were missing several players due to injury, we played a very good game. The players worked hard, and they hustled. We had several opportunities to win it but, just didn't convert."

The loss brought an end to a spring season filled with unexpected adjustments for the Roadrunners.

"The season wasn't quite what we hoped for," said Beltran. "We were able to finish at .500. Considering the number of players that we lost for various reasons throughout the season, if we are going to be fair about it, we probably got what we should have gotten with four wins and four losses. I feel like we left a couple of points on the table with some of those ties, but we never played with the 11 guys we thought were going to be in our starting lineup."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics