Roadrunners fall in Region 16 quarterfinal

The Roadrunners saw their season end in a heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, Oct. 21, in a Region 16 quarterfinal at Neosho. Crowder scored the game's only goal in the final minute of double-overtime to secure the 1-0 victory.

"It was a really good back-and-forth game," said Head Coach Jaime Beltran. "We knew what Crowder liked to do and had a game plan to counter it. It worked well for the entire game, but we didn't capitalize on some opportunities that we had."

SFCC outshot Crowder 5-4 in regulation.

"The first overtime was back-and-forth," said Beltran. "When one team would seem to get the upper hand, the other team would counter. With about three minutes left in the second overtime,Lesia Thetsane took a heck of a shot. Half our bench was up thinking that shot was in, but somehow their goalkeeper got a fingertip to it and just pushed it past the goalpost. Crowder took a shot from outside the box with 53 or 52 seconds remaining, one of our defenders reacted and stuck his foot out trying to block the shot; the ball took a deflection and went in just past Landon Dove's fingertips."

Thetsane recorded four shots in the match. Sophomore forward Mako Makoanyane and freshman midfielder Vasbert Ledger recorded one shot each. Freshmen goalkeepers Josh Kunkelman and Dove split time in the net. Kunkelman recorded one save and Dove recorded four saves.

"I'm very proud of our team," said Beltran. "It's disappointing to be done, knowing that we were that close. I'm proud of what were able to put together in the limited time we had. Hopefully, this will be our launching pad to even better things."

Coach Beltran was very pleased with the contributions of the sophomore class.

"Mako Makoanyane was one of our key players this year," said Beltran. "He contributed a lot of goals, especially early on in the season. We are definitely going to miss him. Logan Horn was a calming and steadying presence in the midfield. He may not have shown up on the stat sheet much, but everyone on our team and everyone who played us knew he was there. Landon Dovewas our leader in the goal most of the year. We are going to miss him as well. Aaron La Paz was a good communicator for us. We are going to miss his voice on the field, as well as what he could do with his feet. All of our sophomores will be missed in some way."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics