Box Score
The 19th Annual Kyle Rote, Jr. Invitational took place this weekend and the host Sewanee Tigers went 1-1 in the two-day tournament. Sewanee's showing was highlighted by the placement of three Tigers to the All-Tournament team, including sophomore
Devon Ball, junior
Will Morgan, and freshman
Brian Maloney. The Tigers topped Huntingdon College on Saturday, 4-1, but fell on Sunday to the University of the Ozarks, 1-0, in a hard-fought battle.
The Tigers kicked off the weekend with a match against the Hawks of Huntingdon College. The Tigers were able to aggressively attack the net early in the first half, but struggled to get one past Huntingdon goalkeeper Matt Russell. Despite being outshot 8-1 in the first half, the Hawks managed to strike first when Nick Jax tore down the field on a breakaway and drove his shot past goalkeeper
Freddie Delchamps, making it 1-0 Huntingdon in the 16th minute.
But Sewanee didn't take long to equalize the game. Not quite two minutes after Jax's score, Sewanee's
Devon Ball found the net on a pass from Matt Green, slipping one past Russell and tying the game at one all. After Ball's goal, the Tigers never looked back.
The rest of the first half remained a 1-1 tie, but the Tigers' offense came out strong in the second half. Sewanee's
Garrett Schlosser broke the tie at the 30 minute mark when his shot sailed into the bottom corner of the net, making it 2-1 Sewanee.
Matt Lightfoot recorded the assist on Schlosser's shot.
Sewanee's defense held strong for the rest of the second half as the Tigers added two insurance goals to seal the win.
Ford Rushton scored on a shot into the middle of the net in the 21st minute and
Miller Thornbury sent one into the left bottom of the net with 2:25 left in the game.
Cedric Djikegoue picked up the assist on Rushton's shot and
Warner Hornsby added one on Thornbury's goal.
The Tigers finished Saturday with 17 shots on goal, while holding the Hawks to only two attempts.
While the Tigers got the W on Saturday, Sunday's effort didn't turn out the same way. Sewanee met up with the University of the Ozarks in Sunday's first match and the game wasn't decided until late in the second half.
The Tigers and the Eagles fought an evenly-matched, physical battle through the first and second halves and despite several offensive attacks by each team in the first half, neither was able to find the goal. Several aggressive spurts resulted in multiple yellow cards throughout the half and play was back and forth the entire time. Sewanee managed seven shots at the goal, but none were able to get by Eagle keeper Neil Thompson.
The second half started off in much the same way as the first, as the Tigers and Eagles continuously battled back and forth from one end of the field to the other at a heightened level of physicality. Finally, in the 73rd minute, Ozark's Guido Salas found the back of the net, as his shot sailed past Sewanee goalkeeper
Derek Williams and lifted the Eagles past the Tigers, 1-0. Despite several near-misses in the final ten minutes, Sewanee was never able to even up the score and ended up falling to the Eagles, dropping their season record to 2-3-0. The Tigers ended the day with 15 shots on goal, up against seven by the Eagles. Williams recorded three saves in the loss.
Sewanee Head Coach
David Poggi knew the Tigers let the Eagles hang around a little too long in the game: "In a match like today's, the longer you leave an opponent like Ozarks hang around, the strong they become. After we settled ino the game, we created twice as many opportunities to score. We should have put them away, but we didn't finish our chances. On a positive note, the result wasn't from lack of effort. We worked hard defensively and limited what they did offensively.
Derek Williams was solid in goal and the back line is getting more comfortable playing together."
Poggi knows that the game prepared the team well for their upcoming schedule. "Collectively, our attackers could have done a better job getting to the final third together. When we get in the penalty area, we need to dig a bit deeper to capitalize on our hard work," he said. "This will be good preparation for when we open up conference play in two weeks. With two games in a weekend and great parity in the SCAC, there is a rhythm we need to get used to if we want to win a conference championship, reflected Poggi.
In Saturday's second game, the Panthers of Birmingham-Southern College took out the Ozarks, 6-1. In Sunday's second game, the Panthers continued their domination of the weekend, dropping Huntingdon by a score of 7-1.
Birmingham-Southern's Tyler Evans was named the tournament's Offensive MVP after producing a hat trick in BSC's Saturday contest. Teammate Cory Gonzalez was named the Defensive MVP, as the Panthers finished the weekend with a perfect 2-0 record. In addition to Ball, Morgan, and Maloney, the All-Tournament Team consisted of Evans, Gonzalez, Tony Crocker and Nicholas Reitmeier of Birmingham-Southern; Logan Hornbeck, Anthony Santoro, and Marcus Aldaba of the University of the Ozarks; and Matt Russell and Alan Clinton of Huntingdon College.
The Tigers will return to action next Sunday when they travel to Virginia to take on Roanoke at 12:00 p.m. EST.
