The last two times the Fort Lewis College men’s soccer team has made it to the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Tournament Quarterfinals, the Skyhawks won the national championship.
FLC hopes to have similar luck this year. The No. 6 seed Skyhawks are moving on to the quarterfinals after beating No. 2 seed Midwestern State 2-0 on Sunday at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls, Texas, in the third round.
“Really proud of the guys and really excited for the guys,” FLC head coach David Oberholtzer said. “We set out knowing what we wanted to do and the guys did a great job executing. To respond the way we did, knowing they knocked us out last year, that was some additional great momentum for the guys. We certainly deserve to win and deserve to move on.”
Midwestern State ended FLC’s season last year in Wichita Falls with a 2-1 win in the second round. This year, FLC improved to 14-3-6 overall after the win while Midwestern State finished its season 15-3-3.
The Mustangs lost despite outshooting the Skyhawks 26-16 and 10-7 with shots on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Martin had a career-high 10 saves for FLC in the win.
“Lucas had a great day and made a number of really good saves,” Oberholtzer said. “Especially after we took the lead, it was a situation where we knew they had to come out and kind of expose themselves a bit to try to equalize. Our goal was just to stay really compact as a group and keep them out of dangerous areas. A good amount of their shots came from distance or were blocked and never even troubled Lucas. So a lot of those things weren't real threatening. We just kept them at bay and when they did find a little window, Lucas came up and did his job.”
FLC got on the board early thanks to senior forward Tomas Duenes and junior midfielder David Citron. In the fifth minute, Duenes went to gather a loose ball inside Midwestern State’s 18-yard box and was tripped, earning the Skyhawks a penalty. Citron stepped up and finished into the right side of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Oberholtzer said Citron stepped up to take the kick because Oberholtzer wanted someone who hasn’t taken a lot of penalty kicks. He said there are videos out there on other FLC players that Midwestern State could’ve studied. Oberholtzer had confidence in Citron that he would step up in the big moment which he did.
After the Mustangs went down 1-0, Midwestern State started pushing more players forward for the equalizer, according to Oberholtzer. This left the Mustangs open for a Skyhawks counterattack. Duenes found sophomore forward Anton Hjalmarsson on the counter and Hjalmarsson finished to put FLC up 2-0 in the 49th minute.
FLC moves on to play No. 1 seed CSU Pueblo on Saturday at 3 p.m. for the fourth time this season. FLC tied CSU Pueblo 2-2 on Sept. 26, beat the ThunderWolves 1-0 on Oct. 20 and lost 2-1 on the road on Nov. 16 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship.
“We've done some awesome things, but we don't want to be content with where we're at,” Oberholtzer said. “We're so close to the ultimate goal and we want to make sure that we're still pushing. That's where the mentality of the group is. We enjoyed it the evening after the game and on the trip home. But now again, refocusing, we've got a chip on our shoulder for sure. The storyline has set itself up really well to be back at Pueblo and an opportunity to compete for a region championship.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
