Triton College Men's Soccer Team Moves One Step Closer to Returning to Final Four
November 2, 2009
The journey back to the NJCAA National Tournament will take the Triton College men's soccer team back to the scene of last's year's Final Four in Dallas, Texas. The Trojans battled the cold and the wind to earn a 1-0 win over Anoka-Ramsey Community College (Minn) Oct. 31 in a contest that got moved to Techny Park in Northbrook due to unplayable conditions at the Schwaben Center in Buffalo Grove. Triton (17-2) will play Richland College, who hosted last year's national tournament Saturday, Nov. 7 in Dallas with the winner punching their ticket to NJCAA Division III National Tournament in Herkimer, NY.
Richland (10-5-1) is ranked 11th in the latest NJCAA poll. The Thunder Ducks defeated Mountain View College Nov. 1 to win the Region V Championship and earn the right to host the Trojans in the District 3 Finals. Triton is ranked 6th nationally and extended their school record winning-streak to 17 games after losing their first two matches to open the season.
The teams are no strangers as Triton defeated Richland 2-1 in overtime in last year's district semifinals en route to their 2nd place finish at nationals.
"We're excited to go down to Texas and play Richland," Triton head coach Tom Cholewa said. "We're going to need to play our best game to win and we'll have our guys ready to go."
A brisk crosswind and temperatures in the mid-40's slowed down the Trojan attack against Anoka-Ramsey (8-5-1) as Triton squandered several quality scoring chances the first 45 minutes as the match went scoreless into halftime.
However, Triton finally broke through with 30 minutes left as David Aranda (Wheeling) set-up Rafal Monsior (Prosser) who buried a shot towards the far post to give the Trojans the only goal of the game.
Goalie Santos Flores (Elmwood Park) preserved the lead with a key save off an Anoka-Ramsey corner kick with three minutes remaining. The freshman finished with five saves.
"We had a lot of chances to put the game away," Cholewa said. "But these were tough conditions to play in and we had to adjust to it. All we got was the one goal and it held up."
For more information on the Triton College men's soccer team, contact head coach Tom Cholewa at (708) 456-0300, Ext. 3862, or visit www.triton.edu/athletics.
