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Mines, Regis claim titles
The third-ranked Colorado School of Mines men’s soccer claimed its first RMAC Tournament Championship title since 2002 prevailing in a penalty kick shootout, 7-6, over Fort Lewis on Sunday afternoon at the CSM Soccer Stadium.
The last time a CSM men’s soccer team won the RMAC Tournament Championship was in 2002. The 2010 squad becomes the second team in program history to win both the regular-season and tournament titles matching the achievement of the 2002 team. Mines claimed RMAC Tournament titles in 1996 and 2002 while winning regular season championships 2000, 2002 and 2003.
On Sunday, the two teams were unable to find a winner through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, it came down to penalty kicks to determine a winner.
Kick after kick each team connected and after five attempts each extra kicks were needed. Mines ‘keeper Manville Strand got a hand on two of FLC’s kicks including one by Cory Dean that spun back into the goal after Strand knocked it down. However, on Jordan Alexander’s attempt Strand dove pushing the ball away to make the save. The next penalty kick was by Sean Helster who connected giving CSM the 7-6 victory and the RMAC Tournament Championship.
Rangers 2, Skyhawks 1: On the women’s side, Regis and Fort Lewis played a similarly tight game in Durango, but were able to arrive at a regulation-time winner.
Kelsey Froehlich’s penalty kick with 28:38 remaining in the game lifted No. 23 Regis (15-5-1) to their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women’s soccer tournament championship since 2003 Sunday, as they defeated No. 3 Fort Lewis (17-2-1) 2-1 at Dirks Field.
“To be honest, I think it was a well-fought game from both teams,” said FLC head coach Damian Clarke. “Both teams played really, really tough today. On the day they ended up being the better team.”
Hayley Hollenga gave the Skyhawks a 1-0 lead just 7:13 into the contest when she ran onto a long ball played over the top of the Regis defense by Lauren Riley. She drilled the shot past Rangers goalkeeper Ellen Augsburger for her team-leading 12th goal of the year.
The lead was short-lived, though, as C.C. Rinehart stripped the ball from Riley near the top of the box and walked into scoring position. Her pass across the box was broken up by FLC goalkeeper Christine Schmelzle, but Meghan Stuart got to the ball first and lifted a perfectly-placed shot into the goal and past a scrambling Schmelzle at 14:55. The goal was Stuart’s fifth of the season.
Then in 61st minute, momentum swung Regis’ way. Froehlich sent a shot wide at 60:28. Less than a minute later, she drilled her penalty kick into the far right corner of the goal, past a diving Schmelzle. It was Froehlich’s first of the season.
The loss was Fort Lewis’s first in the RMAC championship. In four previous RMAC title games, the Skyhawks defeated Regis on penalty kicks following a 1-1 tie through two overtimes in 1999, beat Regis 1-0 in 2006, beat CSU-Pueblo 2-0 in 2007 and defeated Metro State on penalty kicks following a 1-1 tie through two overtimes in 2009.
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