Golden Bears outlast Rio in penalty kick shootout

Rio Grande Sports Information
     BECKLEY, W.Va. - Given that their regular season meeting ended in a scoreless draw, it wasn't much of a surprise that Saturday's River States Conference Men's Soccer Championship final between regular season co-champions University of Rio Grande and West Virginia University-Tech ended up going to overtime.
     And then to a second extra session.
     And finally to a penalty kick shootout.
     After battling through regulation time and two overtime periods to another 0-0 tie, the host Golden Bears earned a spot in next week's NAIA National Championship Tournament with a 3-2 win in peanlty kicks at the Paul Cline/YMCA Soccer Complex.
     Tech, which grabbed the top seed and the right to host the title game by virtue of a tie-breaker, saw its overall record go to 13-4-3.
     Second-seeded and sixth-ranked Rio Grande, which will also be a part of the national tourney as an at-large selection, moved to 14-1-3.
     The RedStorm and the Golden Bears will both learn who and where they'll be playing during the NAIA Selection Show on Monday, at 2 p.m.
     Rio Grande, which played without the services of graduate senior goal keeper Matheus de Campos (Brasilia, Brazil), who was forced to leave due to an injury just 3:39 into the match, and sophomore Justin Jimenez (Alajuela, Costa Rica) - who was ejected as the result of a second yellow card caution and subsequent red card disqualification with 39:02 remaining in regulation - was outshot 19-7 overall and 4-3 in shots on goal, but still managed to force the game into the five-round PK shootout.
     WVU-Tech had the opening shot of the shootout and grabbed the lead on a goal by Layomi Ogunfowora, but the RedStorm tied things up on a score by senior Benjamin Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile).
     Joan Hernandez put the Bears back in front in round two, while Rio sophomore Marti Puigsegur Calvo (Barcelona, Spain) tied things at 2-2 with a goal in round three.
     Rio senior keeper Oton Merin Torro (Concentaina, Spain) and Tech net-minder Ramon Ferrari then both recorded consecutive stops to send the shootout into a sixth round.
     Conrad Ryu Eriksson put the Golden Bears in a front with a score before Ferrari made a diving stop of an attempt by Rio senior Joe McInnes (Airdrie, Scotland) to bring an end to match - which saw 32 combined fouls, nine yellow card cautions and the one red card - and touch off a wild celebration by the hosts.
     Ferrari finished with three saves for WVU-Tech.
     Merin Torro had four saves in goal for Rio Grande, which played the Golden Bears for the fifth time in the past eight conference title games and for the sixth time in the past eight post-season tournaments.
     Four of the six meetings have ended in shootouts, with Tech advancing three times.