Box Score Box Score
Tyler, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor men's soccer team fell behind early before using a late-game offensive explosion to post a 4-3 victory over Howard Payne University in the first round of the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Friday in Tyler. UMHB improves to 13-3-1 on the season with the victory and the Cru advances to the semifinals of the ASC Tournament for the second straight season. Howard Payne's season comes to an end at 12-5-1.
Howard Payne would grab a 1-0 lead when Chris Thompson headed home an assist from Chris Martinez at the 12:42 mark of the first half. The Cru appeared to tie the match at one in the 15
th minute, but the UMHB goal was wiped out by an offside call. Howard Payne would stretch the lead to 2-0 when Martinez scored an unassisted goal at 16:56 of the first half. It would stay that way late into the first half before the Cru would close to within 2-1.
Chris Torres would knock home an assist from
Daniel Gable with 51 seconds remaining in the first half. The game would stay 2-1 late in the second half as Yellow Jackets goalkeeper Malcolm Framjee came up big time after time. But the Cru finally broke through to tie the match when
Neiko Camp headed home Gable's corner kick with 5:18 remaining in the match. Howard Payne would retake the lead just 1:10 later when Paul Deets headed home a corner kick from Reese Lawson. Gable would pull the Cru even again with an unassisted goal with only 2:31 remaining. Camp would then give UMHB its first lead of the match when he made it 4-3 with an unassisted goal with 2:02 left to play. Howard Payne would have two final chances to tie the match, but the Cru turned those shots away and held on for the victory.
Mark Miller finished with one save in goal for UMHB. Framjee posted nine saves in goal for the Yellow Jackets. UMHB dominated the match everywhere but the scoreboard as the Cru outshot HPU 27-12 and put nine 13 of those shots on goal.
UMHB will now advance to face tournament host and top seed U.T.-Tyler in an 11:00 AM semifinal tomorrow. The Patriots edged the Cru 2-1 in the regular season meeting between the two teams in Belton back on September 24. U.T.-Tyler has a 10-3-1 overall record this season. The ASC Tournament Championship match will be played at 1:00 PM on Sunday. The ASC Tournament champion will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships.
