BOILING OVER: Red Devil men continue to struggle, benches clear

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Sports

August 30, 2016 - 12:00 AM

The men’s soccer season has not gotten off to a start that anyone at Allen Community College wanted and those frustrations were on full display Monday evening when the Red Devils hosted Northern Oklahoma A&M College.
The team fell behind 6-2 in the first half against the Golden Norsemen. The Norsemen were able to control the game by dominating possession and Allen struggled to get chances in the opening 45 minutes of play.
“We we don’t keep the ball, we struggle,” Allen coach Doug Desmarteau said. “Our speed of play has to be quicker.”
Scoring was not the main problem for the Red Devils though. With much of the action on ACC’s side of the field, goalkeeper freshman Alan Ibarra was peppered with repeated shots on goal. The young goalkeeper surrendered six goals in the half and the 0-2 Red Devils had to go to intermission wondering how they could change their season’s trajectory.
Then early in the second they had to stew about it some more when the game was delayed by lightning in the area and  the team’s were forced to return to their locker rooms for 30 minutes to wait out the lightning.
Soon after play was resumed, Red Devil midfielder Erick Hernandez was whistled for a foul on a Norsemen player. The Norseman took exception with the play and confronted Hernandez.
The two players exchanged words and the NE Oklahoma A&M player gave Hernandez a shove. This prompted the benches to clear with players trying to defend their teammates and several players playing the role of peace-makers and keeping the teams separated.
“Being cooped up in the school for 30 minutes  got into their heads,” Desmarteau said.
Cooler heads prevailed and the teams were able to finish the game without further incident and both teams shook hands.
“Both teams handled it decently and the coaches did,” Desmarteau said. “One player from each team got kicked out and it will be for non-fighting so it is a one-game suspension.. Hopefully we learn from it and move on.”
The 6-3 loss drops Allen to 0-3 with a game Wednesday at Hesston College looming.

NE OK A&M women 4, Allen 3
The Norsemen women were also able to jump to a 4-1 lead the second half against Allen but Red Devil coach Jeremy McGinnis’ team respond with fight that he believes they can be proud of.
“It was nice to see them come back and hopefully we can take that into conference” McGinnis said.
Freshman Brynn Suddeth scored on a penalty kick to cut the lead to 4-2 and moments later, Ira Taylor – another of McGinnis’ prize freshmen – got herself freed up for a run and put the ball in the back of the net to cut the lead to one.
“(Taylor) has a very high ceiling,” McGinnis said. “She can be very dangerous and one of the best forwards in the conference.”
That is as close as the Red Devils were able to get, however. NE Oklahoma A&M was able to control the ball and run out the clock.
The loss drops Allen to 1-2 on the season and they will travel to Hesston College on Wednesday to try and get back to .500.

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