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Belton, TX – The Hardin-Simmons University men's soccer team converted four of its five penalty kick attempts and got a crucial save from goalkeeper Logan Waters to advance past UMHB 4-2 on penalty kicks and claim the American Southwest Conference Championship Sunday afternoon in Belton. The two teams were tied 0-0 through 110 minutes of action, sending the match to penalty kicks to determine the conference champion. HSU is now 10-2-6 on the season and the Cowboys claim their seventh ASC title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships. The Cru finishes the season 14-3-1 and will have to hope for an at-large bid when the field is announced late tonight.
Hardin-Simmons had first kick in the penalty kick session and Jeff Ridley converted, but
Ben Allen answered for the Cru on UMHB's first kick. Isaiah Hicks connected as the next Cowboy kicker and UMHB's Chris Torres missed high as HSU went up 2-1. Chris O'Brien was good on the next HSU attempt and Waters came up with a clutch save against Chris Gilham to stretch the Cowboy lead to 3-1. Patrick Almond had a chance to win it for HSU, but missed high and Trevor Shoppach kept the Cru alive with a score to cut it to 3-2. Estevan Arbaiza then drilled home the next attempt to give HSU the title.
The two teams were scoreless through 110 minutes of regulation and overtime play. UMHB narrowly missed a pair of golden scoring opportunities in the first half. The first came when Waters stopped Vincent Morales from point-blank range just 2:35 into the match. Daniel Gable then drilled a bending shot just off the crossbar at the 25:18 mark. HSU just missed out on a scoring chance when Mark Miller recorded a diving, acrobatic save on an Isaiah Hicks shot with just 6:10 remaining in the second half. Neither team could put a shot on goal in the first overtime and Miller and Waters both came up with saves on the only shots on goal in the second extra session.
Miller finished with eight saves and posted his 11th shutout of the season in goal for UMHB. Waters finished with eight saves and recorded a shutout of his own in goal for the Cowboys. UMHB out shot HSU 21-20 in the match with both teams putting eight of those shots on goal.
Hardin-Simmons defender Chris O'Brien was named Tournament MVP and was joined on the ASC All-Tournament team by teammates Isaiah Hicks, Logan Waters and Estevan Arbaiza. UMHB's Mark Miller, Daniel Green and Kyle Dickey were voted to the All-Tournament squad. Those seven players were joined by Schreiner's Matt Johnson and Adam Harvey and Brandon Van Cleave and Aaron Brueckner of University of the Ozarks.
Hardin-Simmons wins its seventh ASC Championship and claims its first ASC title since 2006. The Cowboys will advance to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in the program's history.
The Cru set school records for single-season victories and claimed the first regular season ASC Championship in school history. UMHB achieved the highest national ranking in school history by climbing to #16 in the country in the NSCAA Top 25 Poll earlier this season. The Cru also posted the first ASC Tournament win in school history with a 1-0 semifinal victory over Schreiner University on Saturday.
