UCCS men’s soccer defeated the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers, 2-1, in double overtime to advance to the RMAC Championship Tournament Semifinals against No. 1 seed CSU Pueblo on Nov. 13.
The Mountain Lions won after two overtimes with a header goal by graduate student forward Jack Souder.
“Everybody wants to score in the last minute, especially for a winner,” said Souder. “Seeing all my teammates just surround me is quite the feeling.”
The Orediggers scored first in the 33rd minute. The game’s pace quickened as the goal resulted in a yellow card for both teams due to an incident in the 37th between midfielder Lars Walczyk of the Mountain Lions and Caelin David of the Orediggers. 6 minutes later, the Orediggers were served a second yellow card to Alex Gonzalez.
With less than two minutes left in the half and the Orediggers still in the lead, junior forward Nick Walker scored UCCS’ first goal off of an assist from senior midfielder Dani Barajas and graduate student defender Adin Schwenke. The second half ended with the score tied, 1-1, with 7 shots by UCCS and 2 saves by Mountain Lions’ junior goalkeeper Soren Russell.
In the 47th minute, Mines forward Gabe Rodriguez was removed from the game after receiving a red card from an incident with Mountain Lions’ graduate student midfielder Jackson Million, resulting in a cut on his face.
Million was subbed out and returned in the 56th minute in the second half, donning his jersey, a bandage on his face and a black bandage over his right knee.
The Orediggers played with just 10 players on the field—rather than the normal 11—for the remainder of the quarterfinal match due to Rodriguez’s ejection.
The second period was scoreless but saw a yellow card assessed to Mines and 2 yellows assessed to UCCS. UCCS had 9 shots and 3 saves by Russell in the second half. With the game still being tied after the second, 1-1, at the end of regulation, RMAC rules state that the quarterfinal match would see two 10-minute overtime periods with the golden goal rule in effect. The rule says that whichever team scores a goal first wins the game.
The first 10-minute overtime period had 5 shots but no connections. Just a minute into the second overtime period, Souder headed the ball into the goal for the game-winning goal.
“We didn’t play our best,” said Souder. “That’s the thing about this time—you might not get the best of us, but we’re going to get the result no matter what.”
The Mountain Lions will take on the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves in the second round of the RMAC Tournament on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in Pueblo. The winner of the match will advance to the RMAC Championship game on Nov. 16 for a chance to automatically qualify for the NCAA Division II Tournament.