ROCKFORD, Ill. – The Rockford University men's soccer team returned to the field Saturday afternoon after playing to a double overtime tie Friday afternoon in the season opener. Saturday's game brought the Crown College Storm to Rockford to face the Regents. Once again the Regents would find themselves in overtime battling for a victory.
Early in the first half the Regents blocked and then cleared a free kick just outside of the box. Rockford could not defend a quick pass and breakaway by the Storm which netted the first goal of the game with 32:38 left in the first half. Crown had a chance for another goal a few minutes later but goalie Kyle Adams (St. Louis, Mo./Timberland) defended the shot beautifully.
A takedown foul by Crown resulted in Rockford having a free kick a few yards outside of Crown's box. Erik Manriquez (Rockford, Ill./Thomas Jefferson) took the free kick and just missed the top left corner of the goal. Rockford's Miguel Cortez (Marengo, Ill./Marengo) had a great scoring chance at the 20:00 minute mark but the Storm goalie made two outstanding saves. With 8:50 left in the first half Tham Mana (Rockford, Ill./Jefferson) received a pass from Manriquez to beat the Storm goalie from 12 yards out to tie the game up at one.
Two minutes later Cortez recovered his own deflected shot and found Jeffrey Green (Midlothian, Ill./Bremen) open in the middle of the Storm's box. Green hammered a shot just above Crown's goalie, who deflected the shot into the goal to give Rockford its first lead of the game. Both teams had a few more scoring chances the rest of the half but each team's defense held strong.
Five minutes into the second half Crown tied the game up after recovering a blocked shot in the box and striking it past Adams in goal. The next best scoring chance by Crown was thwarted by a diving stop by Adams with 27 minutes left in the game. Three minutes later Adams made another outstanding save on a breakaway to keep the game remained tied at two. Adams could not stop a shot to the right corner of the goal at the 20:30 mark that put Crown up 3-2. Shortly afterwards, Mana had another scoring chance inside the box but his shot barely missed the left corner of Crown's goal.
Rockford's next best scoring chance came with 11:30 left in the game when they had a corner kick followed by a free kick just outside of Crown's box. Both attempts were blocked out by the Storm defenders. Again it was Adams keeping Rockford in the game by stopping another Storm breakaway at the 6:05 mark.
Soon afterAdam Seiter (Rockford, Ill./Boylan) was in the box driving towards the goal when he was tripped from behind, setting up a crucial penalty kick with just over four minutes left in the game. Seiter's shot found the back of the net in the left corner to tie the game up at three. The Regents then assaulted the Storms goal for the remainder of the half but the Storm held strong, blocking multiple scoring chances to send the game into overtime.
Rockford had a number of scoring chances early in the first overtime period but were not able to find the back of the net. At the 7:12 mark Crown recovered a blocked shot and just barely put it past Adams to end the game 4-3.
Rockford returns to the field one week from today when they go on the road to face Bethel University at 2:00 p.m. in Minnesota. Rockford's next home game is on September 17th against Ripon College at 4:00 p.m.
