Rio men tame Tigers in NAIA tourney opener

Rio Grande Sports Information
     COLUMBIA, Mo. - Gabriel Silva scored a pair of second half goals and Vilius Labutis added one of his own, leading the University of Rio Grande to a 3-1 win over Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) University in the Columbia Bracket of the NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship Opening Round, Thursday night, at a cold, windy at Muriel Williams Battle High School.
     The RedStorm, ranked No. 20 overall and seeded third in the four-team bracket, improved to 15-3-2 with the win and advances to face top-seeded - and No. 3 ranked - Central Methodist University in Saturday's bracket final.
     The Eagles (16-0-5), who are serving as the site host, ousted Saint Mary's (Kan.), 8-0, in Thursday's opening game.
     Olivet Nazarene, which was ranked 17th and seeded second, finished its season at 16-2-3.
     "I thought we played well, particularly in the first 45 minutes against the win. We did a nice job of limiting their opportunities and then taking advantage of the ones that we had ourselves," said Rio Grande head coach Scott Morrissey. "I'm pretty confident in saying that there wasn't a better 2-3 matchup anywhere else in the bracket. They've got a nice team."
     The contest was played with a constant north wind of 10-15 mph, which sent wind chill readings plummeting to at or just below 20 degrees.
     Silva, a sophomore from Sao Luis, Brazil, broke a scoreless deadlock just over 12 minutes into the second period when he headed in a crossing pass from the left wing by senior Charlie Chechlacz (Liecestershire, England) to put Rio in front.
     Silva's second goal came off of a penalty kick with 14:07 left to play after the Tigers were whistled for a handball inside the 18-yard box.
     Labutis, a junior from Ireland and the winner of three major River States Conference awards - including Player of the Year - sealed the RedStorm win when he headed in a corner kick by junior Benjamin Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile) with 7:02 remaining to make it 3-0.
     "I thought that the first and the third goals we scored were pretty nice," Morrissey said. "The second one was on a PK, but the kid who blocked Gabriel's shot before that clearly did so with his hand. Was the call harsh? Yes, but it was also correct."
     Olivet Nazarene avoided a shutout with 2:05 left to play when Max Kasper's free kick after a Rio foul bounced off two RedStorm defenders and past senior goal keeper Daniel Merino Correa (Madrid, Spain) for an own goal.
     Rio Grande totaled a 22-9 edge in shots overall and a 9-4 advantage in shots on goal, while also being responsible for all eight corner kick chances in the match.
     Merino Correa was credited with three saves for the RedStorm.
     Mike Giannotta had six stops in a losing cause for ONU.
     The winner of Saturday's Rio-CMU bracket championship, which is slated for a 2 p.m. EDT start, will move on to the national tournament final site, Nov. 29-Dec. 5 in Decatur, Ala.