Rio men top Mighty Oaks in 2OTs

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Marti Puigsegur Calvo scored on a penalty kick with 8:05 remaining in the second overtime to give the University of Rio Grande a 3-2 win over Oakland City University in the semifinal round of the River States Conference Men's Soccer Championship, Saturday afternoon, at Evan E. Davis Field.
     The RedStorm, who were seeded second in the six-team tournament, improved to 11-4-3 with the victory and earned a spot in Wednesday's title game against top-seeded West Virginia University Tech.
     The Golden Bears eliminated No.5 seed Midway University with a 4-0 victory in Saturday's other semifinal contest.
     Third-seeded Oakland City, which dropped a 1-0 decision at home to Rio Grande just one week earlier, finished its season at 8-10-1 with the loss.
     The Mighty Oaks had just four shots in the contest, but scored on two of them.
     Samuel Pilgrim snapped a scoreless tie just 2:55 into the second half when he picked off an errant Rio pass and buried his subsequent shot attempt into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
     That's how things stayed until a frantic final 10 minutes of regulation play.
     Sophomore Estevao Goncalves (Sao Paulo, Brazil) netted the equalizer for the RedStorm with a right-side crossing shot from inside the 18-yard box with 9:25 left to play.
     Rio's euphoria didn't last long, though, when Oakland City's Adam Dimba scored off the ricochet of a blocked shot to put the Mighty Oaks back in front, 2-1, with 6:45 remaining.
     The RedStorm answered again with 2:55 to play when junior Tommy Munoz Salazar (San Jose, Costa Rica) gathered in a right wing pass from sophomore Hugo Ferreira (Paris, France) directly in front of the goal and pushed a shot past OCU net-minder Jacob Robinson for the marker that knotted the score at 2-2 and sent the game into extra time.
     The match ventured into a second extra session and ended just under two minutes into it when Rio freshman Facundo Rossich (Buenos Aires, Argentina) advanced the ball into the 18-yard box and was taken to the ground by the combination of an Oaks' defender from behind and by Robinson advancing out of the goal.
     Calvo, a senior from Barcelona, Spain, was selected to attempt the PK and proceeded to send his shot into the lower left corner of the goal as Robinson dove to the left.
     Rio Grande finished with an overwhelming 30-4 edge in shots overall and a 13-2 advantage in shots on goal, while also being responsible for all five corner kick chances in the match.
     Freshman Samy Hamou (Paris, France) got the win in goal for Rio despite not recording a save.
     Robinson finished with 10 stops in the loss for OCU.
     Wednesday's title game is scheduled for a 5 p.m. kickoff at the YMCA/Paul Cline Soccer Complex in Beckley, W.Va.