AC Advances to Conference Wednesday’s Semifinals
The seventh-ranked Angelina College Roadrunners have gone unbeaten all season thanks largely to a scoring machine disguised as an offense. The team scored a total of 21 goals over its final three regular-season matches.
So it was a little surprising to see the team off to a slow start in Saturday’s regional quarterfinal match against Northeast Texas Community College.
NTCC took a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute and led 1-0 at the half – and then the aforementioned AC offense found its stride.
The ‘Runners came out of the gates in the second half, scoring three unanswered goals on the way to a 4-2 win over the Eagles at the AC Soccer Complex in Lufkin.
Mere seconds after just barely scoring on a header in the box, AC’s Kaito Ueki redeemed himself with a sweet move around the NTCC keeper and a goal with the flick of Ueki’s foot to even the match. Two minutes later, Bryan Aguirre took a pass from Omar Mora and worked through Eagle defenders to give AC a 2-1 lead with his goal.
Just three minutes after assisting Aguirre, Mora blasted a rocket from outside the box for a 3-1 AC advantage, and after the Eagles cut the lead to 3-2 in the 74th minute, Roadrunner Shota Tokuhisa used a Mora run and cross to finish off with the match’s final score.
The No. 7 Roadrunners (10-0-2) next host Blinn College (7-5) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at the AC Soccer Complex on the Angelina College campus.
The email address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
