Meridian CC keeps playoff hopes alive with win at ECCC
By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
October 13, 2004
DECATUR Meridian Community College kept its postseason soccer hopes alive on Tuesday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over East Central Community College.
The Eagles, now 12-4 and 6-2 in division play, will try to win their final two games of the season for a trip to the postseason.
The Eagles have Jones on the road on Friday and will finish out the regular season with a match against Co-Lin next week.
On Tuesday, MCC put pressure on the homestanding Warriors and scored early in the second half to pick up the close win.
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead as Chad Brunson fed Travis Brown on a breakaway.
Brown finished the chance with a blast into the right side of the net to make the score 1-0 with 42:31 remaining in the first half.
MCC had another good chance with 36 minutes left in the first.
Stephen Frederic fed Brown with a pass and Brown fed the ball back to Frederic at the top of the box. The midfielder's shot was saved, however, and ECCC was able to clear the ball away.
The Warriors finished off a chance later in the first half to tie the game. Luis Araya passed to Daniel Warren who sent a long ball down the field towards the MCC box.
Trey Whitehead was able to get his head on the ball and sent it into the net to tie the game at 1-1 with 18 minutes left in the first half.
The Eagles nearly took back the lead late in the first half when Kyle Notvest broke free behind the Warrior defense, but keeper Jose Castillo charged out to clear the ball away.
MCC took back the lead in the opening minutes of the second half as Alejandro Alvarado fed Brunson with a pass behind the ECCC defense. Brunson finished off the run with a nice shot to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.
MCC nearly added to its lead later in the half when a shot by Alvarado slipped through the keeper's hands, but keeper Ragan Denham was able to recover to make a diving save to keep the score at 2-1.
Meridian had another chance a minute later when Steven Cook fed Jay Crane with a pass. Crane's shot went high to keep East Central within a goal.
East Central was unable to get much going on the offensive end but nearly tied the game on a shot by Diego Perez with 24 minutes left. The shot went wide right and Meridian held on to pick up the victory.
The Warriors drop to 5-7-1 with the loss and are now 2-5 in division play.
