PORTLAND, Ore. – In the final game of the regular season, Corban's men's soccer team fell to the Thunderbirds of Cascade, 2-0, despite a game-high five saves by junior Aaron Franklin (Red Bluff, Calif.) and now have to wait and see if they will secure the third and final playoff spot out of the South Division.
After defeating Oregon Tech, 2-1, on Saturday, Corban moved into sole possession of third place in the South Division of the Cascade Collegiate Conference. With one more game remaining in the regular season, the Warriors will have to wait and see what the outcome is of tomorrow's Oregon Tech-Northwest Christian game.
According to the tiebreaker format, after head-to-head play (which Corban split 1-1 with both the Hustlin' Owls and Beacons) the next step is looking at LONGO scoring within division play. After Saturday's result, the Warriors were sitting with 1,075 points versus OIT's 715 and NCU's 700.
After the Warriors' final regular season game, they are sitting 560 points ahead of Oregon Tech. Even if OIT defeats Northwest Christian by more than three goals, the Warriors should still make the playoffs since the most points that the Hustlin' Owls can earn are 250.
In today's game against Cascade, Corban came out firing in the first five minutes with several dangerous crossing passes that tested T-Bird keeper Efrain Vargas.
The host Thunderbirds got on the board in the 36th minute when Alex Cioara took a volley pass from Fernando Montiel and deposited a shot into the upper corner for the eventual game-winner.
The score remained in favor of the host team until the closing minutes of the game, when Montiel capped the game's scoring with a goal in the 89th minute off an assist from Elijah Timofeyev. Timofeyev began the play with a heal pass to Montiel, who unloaded a strike from 20 yards out that ended up in the back of the net.
Franklin stood between the pipes for the full 90 minutes for Corban en route his game-high in saves, while Cascade's Vargas registered three saves en route to securing the shutout.
With the loss, Corban finishes the regular season at 5-12-1 overall, including 3-9-0 in conference play. Meanwhile, Cascade concludes at 11-7-0 overall, including 7-5-0 in conference action. The Warriors will have to wait until Thursday to find out if they make the conference postseason tournament.
NOTE: If Corban does advance to the conference playoffs then they will travel to Portland to take on the Knights of Warner Pacific at a time still to be determined.
