Grizzlies eliminate Rio men in PK shootout

Rio Grande Sports Information
     LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - It had all the drama that one would expect from a national tournament showdown involving two evenly-matched opponents.
     There was a defensive-dominated period of regulation play, followed by a pair of hard-nosed overtime sessions and then the most nerve-wrecking situation of them all - the penalty kick shootout.
     Unfortunately for the University of Rio Grande, the winner-take-all 1-v-1 showdown between shooter and goal keeper left the RedStorm thinking about the oft-used adage "somedays you get the bear and somedays the bear gets you."
     Head coach Scott Morrissey's squad battled 12th-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College to a scoreless draw after 110 minutes of action before succumbing to the Grizzlies in the PK shootout, 4-3, in Saturday afternoon's second round game of the NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship at the Grizzly Soccer Complex.
     Rio Grande, which was ranked No. 23 in the final regular season coaches' Top 25 poll, finished its season at 11-5-4 with the loss.
     In an odd twist worth noting, two of the RedStorm's losses this season and Saturday's tie came against teams nicknamed "Bears" or a variation thereof of the animal. Both losses were to River States Conference rival West Virginia University-Tech.
     Georgia Gwinnett, the event's No. 9 seed, moved to 12-2-4 and advances to the tourney's final site in Orange Beach, Ala. beginning Dec. 1 where it will face 8th-seeded Cumberland (Tenn.) in the Round of 16.
     Over the course of regulation play, the Grizzlies enjoyed an 10-6 advantage in overall shots and a 6-2 edge in shots on frame.
     Both teams managed just one shot each in the first overtime period and neither managed an attempt in the second extra session.
     That set the stage for the shootout.
     Both teams scored on their first three PK's, with Rio scoring on shots by senior Marti Puigsegur Calvo (Barcelona, Spain), freshman Facundo Rossich (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and junior Lucas O'Donnell (Leeds, England), respectively. GGC's markers came off the feet of Alejandro Contrera, Errin Leak and Michael Mallaburn.
     Rio senior Harry Walsh (Letchworth Garden City, England) and Gwinnett's leading scorer for the year, Ousmane Fall, both came away empty in the fourth round and RedStorm senior Justin Jimenez (Alajuela, Costa Rica) was also denied in round five.
     The match ended moments later, though, when GGC's Brayan Gomez pushed a shot past Rio freshman keeper Samy Hamou (Paris, France).
     Hamou finished with seven stops for the RedStorm.
     Victor Darub had two saves for the Grizzlies.