ROUND ROCK, Texas – The Concordia Texas men's soccer team converted all six of its penalty shots, the last one coming off the foot of
Richard Aguirre, to defeat Belhaven 6-5 in a shootout on Tuesday to advance to the semifinal round of the American Southwest Conference Tournament for the fourth year in a row.
The Tornados faced off against the Blazers in an ASC Tournament Quarterfinal for the third consecutive season, playing in a two-seed vs. seven-seed matchup.
In a scoreless bout for nearly 80 minutes,
Marco Vazquez and CTX broke through BU's defense to score the game's first goal. It came in the 80th minute as
Theo Givens passed in a low cross into the box, finding Vazquez, who fired into the top-right corner of the net to give the Tornados a 1-0 lead..
It is the 11th goal scored by Vazquez this season and gives him 25 in his career, tying him with Omar Aguirre for the program's career goal record.
The Blazers though, scored an equalizing goal in the final minute of regulation off a free kick. At the end of 90 minutes of play, the teams were tied at 1-1, and headed into extra time.
In the second extra period,
Victor Gomez nearly scored the game-winning goal for CTX, firing a laser in the 102nd minute that was just wide of the frame.
After 110 minutes of play, the score remained tied at 1-all and both teams headed to a penalty shootout.
The Tornados were calm, cool and collected, converting six straight penalty kicks, the final one fired in by Aguirre. Meanwhile Belhaven, who shot second in the shootout, knocked in their first five shots.
The Blazers' Dustin Byers missed wide right on the team's sixth shot of the shootout, securing CTX the win in a 6-5 decision and advancing to the semifinal round of the ASC Tournament.
The Tornados return to the ASC Tournament semifinals for the fourth year in a row and will look to make their third straight conference championship appearance.
Concordia Texas will take on UT Dallas in the semifinals on Friday, at 8 p.m. in Belton, Texas on the campus of Mary Hardin-Baylor with a spot in the title game on the line.
In their regular season matchup back on Sept. 30, the two teams played to a 0-0 draw.
