Pilots take down HTU in OT
November 03, 2012
SHREVEPORT, La. - The post season for soccer brings one for sure thing in to play; there must be a winner. Saturday afternoon at The Swamp it looked as if penalty kicks after double overtime would be needed to decide a winner between the LSU Shreveport Pilots and the Huston-Tillotson Rams men's soccer teams only it was the Pilots who came out on top with a 1-0 victory in overtime as Rodrigo Pontes scored on a penalty kick three minutes and 59 seconds into overtime. The Pilots advance in the tournament after defeating last year's regular season and tournament champion.
LSUS (13-5-1) keeps adding to their single season win total setting a new record each time since they past the former record of nine a few weeks ago. The Pilots' William Awagu had a breakaway and was fouled by HTU's Elias Barahona who was issued a red card for being the last defender. Since the foul occurred inside the box that led to a penalty kick for the Pilots for what would be the game winner.
After a brief discussion of the officials they concurred that the penalty did in fact occur in the box and the Pilots sent Pontes up for the pk. His swift kick banged the ball off the left post and in for the game-winner as the Pilots advance to the semifinals for the second time in school history. The last time the Pilots made it past the first round was their inaugural season as they defeated Spring Hill in the first round of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.
HTU (8-4-4) had been playing a man down since Oscar Ortez was issued a Red Card during the 87th minute for stepping on the back of Awagu after he had knocked him to the ground; had Pontes not made the game-winning penalty kick the visitors would have been down two men for the remaining of the overtime periods.
The Rams controlled the shot count out shooting the Pilots overall 19-13 but the Pilots had the edge in overtime 2-0 as they took advantage of the Rams being a man down.
Lance Quini picks up his sixth shutout of the season in the net for the Pilots as he made all three saves of the shots that the Rams put between the pipes. His counterpart Marcos Sanchez also made three saves but allowed the goal to Pontes.
The Pilots will play either no. 1 Our Lady of the Lake or no. 2 Texas Wesleyan next Friday night at either 5:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth, Texas, depending the outcome of the other Quarter Finals game taking place today between no. 6 Northwood and no. 3 UT-Brownsville. A win by Northwood would put the Pilots against Texas Wesleyan while a win by UT-Brownsville would match the Pilots against Our Lady of the Lake.
