Allen Community College’s white-hot starts were just enough Wednesday.
The Red Devils scored twice in the opening minutes of the first half, and again 30 seconds after returning from intermission.
The early bursts gave the Red Devils a 3-0 lead.
Visiting Crowder College of Neosho, Mo., made things interesting, scoring twice in the second half under a relentless attack.
Things weren’t settled until after Allen fended off a pair of corner kicks in the game’s final 90 seconds, the last coming with 19 seconds left in the game.
Nevertheless, the Red Devils’ 3-2 victory gives the team a boost, head coach Doug Desmarteau said.
“I would like not to have had to sweat it out,” Desmarteau said. “But it was a good win.”
Allen was without leading scorer Jordan Mase, who had to sit out the game because of an accumulation of yellow cards (five) in the non-conference portion of the schedule.
“It was a good win without Jordan,” Desmarteau said.
Allen’s Cillian Gilligan and David Almeida each found the back of the net within the first nine minutes, and the Red Devils controlled the tempo for the duration of the half.
“We had a couple of other chances, but we couldn’t capitalize,” Desmarteau said.
Ben Mqathu’s header turned into a 3-0 lead 30 seconds into the second half.
But Crowder didn’t go down without a fight, scoring moments after Mqathu’s goal.
And while Allen had a number of golden opportunities from there, Crowder pushed the pace repeatedly.
“We kind of relaxed a little bit and let them back into it,” Desmarteau said.
