DENVER – So. Agonizingly. Close.
The MSU Denver men's soccer team led 2-0 with 10 minutes to play Wednesday night but had to settle for a 2-2 tie as Colorado School of Mines scored at 80:13 and 83:19.
The tie, rather than a win, means the Roadrunners will most likely need a win – by as many goals possible – Friday night against Colorado Christian as well as possibly some help from someone else in the league to qualify for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.
Had the Roadrunners won Wednesday, they most likely would have needed only to win on Friday to clinch a postseason berth.
"It's on us in this one, unfortunately," MSU Denver coach
Nick Kirchhof said. "A tie isn't a bad result, but it isn't what we wanted. It's not what we went for. I'm disappointed with our second half, because the mindset wasn't there. We wanted to be attacking. We wanted to be playing. And we decided to absorb way too much pressure in the second half."
Aaron Biggerstaff's seventh goal of the season, a penalty kick at 6:30, gave the Roadrunners the early lead, and despite some shaky moments, the lead grew to 2-0 when
Zack Williams delivered a blast from the top of the box at 70:40.
"I thought we weathered the storm in the second half and got past it," Kirchhof said. "But then to give up two goals in the last 10 – that's heartbreaking, honestly."
Williams, a freshman forward, scored his second goal of the season after
Dallas Baer kept a threat alive and deflected the ball his way.
"He has a great nose for goals," Kirchhof said. "He was looking to score and I'm really that he took his chance. That goal should have really put us on the front foot and excited."
The tie gave MSU Denver (6-7-4 overall) and Mines (5-5-6) one point each and they are still tied, now at 4-3-2 for 14 points in league play. Temporarily it's part of a three-way tie for fourth with Westminster, but the Griffins have two games remaining while MSU Denver and Mines have one each.
Six teams will qualify for the RMAC Tournament, but UCCS is expected to pick up six points with two wins that would help them push past both MSU Denver and Mines with 18 points. There are multiple scenarios that could happen over the next four days, but some would have the Roadrunners and Orediggers tying for the sixth and final spot with 17 points should both beat Colorado Christian.
Since the head-to-head matchup was Wednesday's tie – and thus so frustrating for MSU Denver – the next tiebreaker is goal differential (up to three goals per game) in league games. Both the Roadrunners and Orediggers currently have a goal differential (for the tiebreaker) of plus-3.
MSU Denver plays Colorado Christian on Friday, and Mines does on Sunday, so, should both win, if one teams outscores CCU by a greater margin, it would be in – in this set of scenarios anyway. If the teams are still tied, then the next applicable tiebreaker is goals scored in conference play, and Mines has scored six more goals than MSU Denver.
Westminster figures to beat Adams State to get to 17 points, but has a tough home game with Fort Lewis, currently in first with 17 points, which would create a three-way tie at 17. It's not out of the realm of possibility for Fort Lewis to lose both at Colorado Mesa and Westminster and find itself in a tie with MSU Denver and Mines at 17 points.
And none of this includes scenarios involving ties – so a lot could still happen.
"Now the thing is we don't have our own control," Kirchhof said. "We have to hope somebody else does something and that we get our own points on the way.
"I'm proud of the fight. I'm proud of how we did things. It's just in those key moments, we didn't execute and they did. It's a tough one."
