It was a heartbreaking way to end the season for the Riverland Blue Devils men's soccer team, as they succumbed to Harper College 4-3 in penalty kicks, after playing out 110 minutes of soccer to a 1-1 tie on a cold, snowy Saturday afternoon in Austin, Minnesota. After the loss, Riverland ends its season at 8-8-3, having won its first-ever regional title along the way.
The game was tight with Region IV winner Harper College throughout. Riverland scored first, with sophomore forward Bol Bayak (Mankato, MN) taking a pass from freshman defender Reyes Turcios (Faribault, MN) and slotting past the Harper goalkeeper and into the back of the net just eight minutes into the contest.
That's the way it would stay until early in the second half, as Harper found a 52nd minute equalizer. Both teams worked to find a winner, but the game was still tied at the end of the regulation 90 minutes, which meant the two teams would play two ten-minute overtimes, with the first team to score being the winner. However, after another twenty minutes, neither team could crack the opponent's goal, and the game was forced to go to penalty kicks. Harper sealed its progress to the national tournament when their goalkeeper scored his penalty on kick number five, giving Harper the 4-3 PK advantage and the game.
"Penalty kicks are such a tough way to decide games," said Riverland head coach Frank Spaeth. "At the end of the day, though, there has to be a winner. Congratulations to Harper College. We wish them the best of luck at nationals and hope they do our district proud."
After the match, Spaeth was awarded a plaque as the NJCAA Division III Region XIII Coach of the Year, and defender Diego Prada (Bogota, Colombia) was selected as the NJCAA Division III Region XIII MVP. Three other players, Ntsako Baloyi (Pretoria, South Africa), Alex Ulrich (Owatonna, MN) and Luis Lofego (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) were also selected to the all-Region team.
"Overall, we had a wonderful campaign," said Spaeth, who has 38 wins over four seasons as head coach of the program. "And with as many as eight of our starters from this season returning for 2024, we have a really good base of talent to build around for next year."
