Shelby Hild (Missouri State Sports Information) SPRINGFIELD – It came down to a shootout between the No. 5-seeded Missouri State men’s soccer team (8-7-3) and the No. 4-seeded Central Arkansas Bears (7-7-3) in the MVC championship quarterfinal match on Wednesday night at Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium. After going to six rounds, MSU converted five of its penalty shots, to UCA’s four, to advance to Friday’s semifinal match against the league’s top seeded Loyola.
Eight minutes into the match, Central Arkansas’ William Woody drew MSU goalkeeper, Liam Priestley, 10-yards out of the net. Woody dished the ball to Wes Carson as Robbie Oslica stepped into the net for the Bears. From the near side of the field, less than five-yards out, Carson pushed the ball into the back post to give Central Arkansas the early 1-0 lead.
Missouri State pushed back at the visiting team, taking two shots and maintaining possession, before MSU’s Emmerich Hoegg beat his defender into the box. The senior flicked the ball to teammate Jake Laird in the middle of the box, who found an open Jake Buckle 20-yards out. Buckle netted his second goal of the season in the 27th minute to equalize with the visiting Bears.
The closest look for MSU in the second half came in the 65th minute of the match, when six different Bears got a touch in front of the mouth of the goal. Central Arkansas cleared the ball, sending the ball 30-yards out to MSU’s James Routledge. Putting heat behind his kick, Routledge fired and sent the ball less than five feet over the crossbar.
In the overtime periods, only three shots would be taken by MSU, while Central Arkansas was only able to get one off in the 100th minute, to send the match into penalty kicks for the first time in the 2016 MVC Men’s Soccer Championship.
Central Arkansas was awarded the first opportunity in the first round of the shootout. Both UCA’s Alejandro Moquete and MSU’s Jack Griffin would convert their shots to keep the shootout tied at one-all going to into the second round.
Priestley would make his biggest and only save of the shootout in the second round, as Central Arkansas’ Pepe San Roman fired his shot to the far side of the goal and Priestley deflected it to keep it out of the net.
James Routledge and Buckle would convert the next two, before Hoegg missed wide right, to send the shootout into an extra round. UCA’s Joey Kampmann forced his shot high over the crossbar, setting up the final shot for Mikey Lightbourne. Lightbourne netted the final penalty kick to keep MSU’s tournament run going.
For the fourth time in five MVC tournament appearances, the Missouri State Bears advance to the semifinal round. In each of those trips to the final four, the Bears have fallen and have been unable to advance to the championship game.
