Bears Take Down Owls in Second Half
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The Oregon Tech men’s soccer team hosted Rocky Mountain College in a 0-3 loss on the Oregon Tech campus. The #21 team in the nation, Rocky Mountain, entered the game with record of 8-1-2 in conference and tied for 2nd place in the CCC standings. This weekend’s games have the Bears looking to close out the regular season hunting one of the two CCC automatic qualifiers to the NAIA national tournament. Oregon Tech came into the contest at 5-5-1 in CCC play and tied for 8th place, looking to solidify a spot in the conference tournament for the first time in school history.
From the opening whistle the Owls worked hard defensively, sitting in on the Bears, working to deny their strong counter attacks. The tactics held strong and frustrated the Rocky team as they were limited to 7 shots, but only putting 1 on frame that Tech goalkeeper, Dino Rozac, was able to handle. The Tech counter attack found multiple opportunities to be dangerous running at the Rocky back line, but were only able to get 3 shots off in the half. Both teams would enter half time with the score level.
The second stanza proved to be the difference between the teams. The Bears came out seeking the back of the net and found it less than 6 minutes into the half. Rocky midfielder, Ben Teasdale, would dribble penetrate at the Tech back line drawing the defense out of shape, before slotting the ball to teammate Nolan Sherwood who would gather the pass and score past Rozac. The Bears would add a second goal just 3 minutes later, when Eddie Cass would collect a cross from teammate Gregor Watson that he would tap in to make the score line 0-2 in favor of Rocky Mountain. Despite Tech’s efforts to generate more on the attacking side of the ball by putting 4 shots on frame, they were unable to find the back of the net. Rocky Mountain would close out the game with a final goal in the 85th minute, when Alexander Taylor would beat three Tech defenders on the dribble to slot a pass to the back post for teammate Colin Gregory to redirect the pass into the back of the net.
Rocky Mountain moves to 9-1-2 in CCC play, still tied for 2nd place with Southern Oregon University and playing SOU for the tie breaker, and a possible chance to jump current #1 seed Corban, depending on Corban’s result against The Evergreen State College, and being crowned CCC regular season champs tomorrow. Oregon Tech sits tied for 8th place in a must win situation to make the CCC tournament tomorrow against the College of Idaho kickoff is set for 12:00 pm at the OIT Soccer Field.