EVANS, Ga. — Allen Community College’s dream season has come to an end.
The Red Devil women’s soccer team gave fans one last thrill Saturday, topping the nation’s eighth-ranked team in St. Louis Community College in the final round of pool play in the NJCAA-Division II National Tournament.
After the teams battled to a scoreless standstill through regulation, and a pair of 10-minute overtime periods, the game went into a penalty kick shootout.
St. Louis made its first two penalty kicks, before Allen made its first off the foot of Mia Evans. Autumn Wyatt was denied, but Samatha Burks knocked in a shot to tie the score at 2-2.
When Allen goalkeeper Phoenix Michaelis saved St. Louis’s final shot, the game rested on the foot of Nicole Cortez.
She delivered, scoring the goal and giving ACC the dramatic 3-2 win.
Alas, the thrill of victory didn’t relate to a trip to the national semifinals. Holmes Community College, which defeated Allen, 2-1, in the opening round Friday, clinched the pool victory with a 4-0 win over St. Louis Sunday.
And even before that, Allen’s players learned they would not advance out of their pool because shootout victories are scored differently from a traditional soccer win, so they knew regardless of how the Holmes-St. Louis match went, the Red Devils’ soccer season was over.
So after playing two exhausting matches in the span of a little more than 24 hours, the weary Red Devils departed from Georgia Sunday morning, headed back to Kansas.
Nevertheless, Allen head coach Jeremy McGinnis is confident The Red Devils made an impression on other teams for their gutty play at the national level.
“We wanted to show them we’ve got something here,” he continued. “I think we did that. We competed. We showed the nation what we could do.”
Despite steamrolling their way through the season up to that point — winning their first 11 matches by a combined 49-2 — the Red Devils were seeded 11th of the 12 teams in the national tournament.
The low seeding meant Allen had an uphill climb from the start, opening against the No. 2-ranked Holmes club.
“Oh my gosh, that team was fast,” McGinnis said. “Those girls up top had speed we just haven’t seen this year.”
To counter Holmes’s relentless offensive attack, the Red Devils stayed in their base 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 formation, but had to remain more disciplined with the ball, McGinnis said.
