Riverland Community College Men's Soccer captures a three peat when they won in penalty kicks over Minnesota West in the NJCAA Region XIII Championship on Sunday evening.
Minnesota West struck first in the 27th minute, taking an early 1-0 advantage. Riverland responded before halftime when Abdullahi Atanda Aderogba (Lagos, Nigeria) found the back of the net in the 38th minute, assisted by Josh Jones (Wirral, England) and Owen Spaeth (Rochester, MN), leveling the match at 1-1.
The Blue Devils took the lead early in the second half as Flynn Perry (Farnham, England) scored in the 55th minute, again set up by Jones—his second assist of the day.
The Blue Devils controlled the game for it's majority untilt the 89th minute when Minnesota West scored a late equalizer which forced extra time between the two evenly matched squads.
Both teams battled for two periods of ten minutes throughout overtime trying to find the golden goal but remained tied which brought the Region Championship to penalty kicks.
Riverland missed their first, but Blue Devils goalkeeper Ricardo Guedez (Guanare-Portuguesa, Venezuela) came up with a massive save on Minnesota West's first kick, to keep the shootout at 0-0. After both teams made their next two kicks, Riverland stepped up for kick four, with Flynn Perry sending it past the West keeper to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 lead. Guedez then made another spectacular save for Riverland on the Blue Jays' fourth kick. Captain Nelson Powell (Frankston, Austalia) headed to the spot next and rolled the ball past the West keeper to take the PK score to 4-2 and ensure a Riverland victory.
"Ricky came up huge for us in the penalty shootout. Those two saves were so important," said Riverland head coach Frank Spaeth. "And after an unfortunate save of our first attempt, we found our stride and Josh, Abdi, Flynn, and Nelson were all able to keep their cool find the back of the net."
Riverland won the PK battle to send themselves to their third straight NJCAA District Championship.
Riverland will host Joilet Wolves (Illinois) who they faced in the District Final last season for a shot to go to the NJCAA National Tournament in New York hosted at Herkimer College November 11-16th.
