ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's soccer team was less than a minute away from advancing in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, but Maryville scored a goal late in regulation time to extend the game and then won the penalty kick shootout 4-3 to move on in the tournament and end S&T's season in the process.
The Miners scored twice in the first half and held the Saints off the scoreboard for better than 70 minutes, but the top-seeded Saints cut the lead in half in the 71
st minute and then got the game tied on a goal by Cedric Sengl with 29 left on the clock to send the game into overtime.
After two scoreless 10-minute overtime periods, the game went into a penalty kick shootout where the Saints got the early advantage when Maryville goalkeeper Albert Escuin stopped
Joe Mueller (Cottleville, MO/Francis Howell Central HS) and Sengl scored to give the Saints the lead.
Maryville went up 2-0 after
Sigurd Semlitsch (Oslo, Norway/Stabekk Videregaaende Skole) missed his second round shot wide and Mirza Hasecic scored on his attempt, before the Miners made three straight to try and keep pace.
Jason Jorgensen (Florence, Italy/Liceo Scientifico Santa Maria) cut it to 2-1 before
Davis Joseph (Andover, KS/Andover Central) stopped Mason Crew's shot, but Maryville converted their attempts after
Jimmy Sanchez (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell Central) and
Grant Polman (Wentzville, MO/Holt) were successful in the final two rounds; Eybo Tadesse scored in the fifth round to win the shootout for Maryville.
The Miners scored twice in the first half on their only two shots on net. The first came in the 15
th minute when Robert Sullentrop was taken down outside the box, but then hit the free kick into the top corner of the net to put S&T in front. Just over eight minutes later, Jorgensen got a feed at the top of the box from Cervantes and put a shot by Escuin to give the Miners a 2-0 lead.
S&T carried that lead into the second half, but in the 71
st minute, a miscommunication by the S&T defense led to a foul in the box and a penalty kick opportunity for the Saints. Joseph stopped the penalty kick taken by Sengl, but the rebound came out to Tim Smith and he put the shot by Joseph to cut the S&T lead in half.
The Saints had a couple of great scoring chance in the final 10 minutes, but the Miner defense blocked a shot by Smith in the 84
th minute and another try by Hasecic in the 86
th minute to keep S&T in front. However, with the clock winding down inside of a minute, Hasecic got a pass to Sengl in front of the net and scored to tie up the contest.
Maryville held an 18-8 advantage in shots but only seven shots in the entire contest were on goal. Joseph finished with two saves for the Miners, who ended the season with a record of 5-7-5 after making their first appearance in the GLVC Tournament since 2017.
