Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Men’s Soccer team came back to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament 3-1.
The Mavericks are no strangers to the championship game of the RMAC tournament. They competed in the championship game last season and lost in overtime to Colorado School of Mines. With the loss last year in overtime, Head Coach Jon Fridal talked about how winning this year felt amazing to him and to the team.
“Every team that has played this year has worked really hard so with what we went through last year in overtime this feels really good to come back and bury those demons,” Fridal said.
Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSUP) set a fast pace from the start as they controlled the ball for the first several moments of the game. The Thunderwolves took advantage of their fast play style and Lamar Bynum put up his fourth goal of the season off a pass from Vincent Zingel.
Bynum’s goal was the only goal that redshirt junior goalkeeper Connor Durant allowed in the championship game.
After the Thunderwolves goal, CMU knew that they needed to respond and tie the game if they wanted a chance in the second half.
Redshirt freshman forward Joey Joiner got the Mavericks fans on their feet as he was able to catch a solid pass from Isa Trujillo and Leo Mireles. The goal happened at the 27 minute mark in the game.
Going into halftime tied, the team really took the time to talk about what they saw from the Thunderwolves in the first half especially on that scoring play. They also discussed how they can capitalize on coming out strong in the second half.
At the 46 minute mark, redshirt freshman forward Fernando Morales wasted no time on finding a pass that he could get past the Thunderwolves goalkeeper Garret Wild. Morales was able to find a pass from redshirt junior midfielder Daisuke Takanaka to score the goal. The goal was Morales’s seventh of the season.
The Mavericks were not done yet, redshirt sophomore forward Alec Fronapfel was able to put the ball in the back of the net on a pass from redshirt senior midfielder Gabriel Peres to put the last point on the board for CMU.
“As soon as we started playing the ball a lot quicker side to side in the second half. Coach told me to keep running at the center back. He kept stepping and getting out of position so once we got the ball in the midfield I opened up wide and decided to run through and they found me. I took a touch and knew that if I put it hard and low to the far side there was a good chance it was going to be all net,” Fronapfel said.
CMU was able to put up more consistent shots in the second half as they had seven compared to the 12 they had in the first half. Eight of those 19 shots were on the goal as they found the right pace to work at.
Fronapfel led the Mavericks in shots and shots on goal throughout the night as he took six shots with four of them being on goal.
Durant only gave up the one goal out of the five shots on goal that CSUP took. He made diving plays in the second half to help secure the win on the defensive side.
“It was pretty crazy. I got a little hectic there in the second half obviously Pueblo was pushing the pace to get the goal and break through. Just staying smart as a goalkeeper. One of the best things that a coach has ever told me was you’re a goalkeeper not a playmaker and just play smart and to do that I came into the game and I thought to make the smart decision and let the ten people in front of me to take care of the business and we will be good,” Durant said.
The Mavericks had five athletes on the RMAC Men’s Soccer All-Tournament team including Fronapfel, who was the MVP of the tournament, Durant, Morales, Peres and redshirt junior defender Ethan Anderson.
CMU will definitely have a spot in the NCAA regional tournament as they won their divisional tournament. CMU will find out where they stand in the tournament on Nov.16.
