McPherson, Kan. – Central Christian College of Kansas had the opportunity to host their opening round game of the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) tournament. The Tigers finished with the third best record in the SAC and earned the three seed going into the tournament. They would matchup against the six seed Science & Arts Oklahoma Drovers in a game that was must see soccer down to the very end. These two teams battled it out just weeks ago in sloppy conditions that was a one-sided affair in favor of USAO.

This trend seemed to carry over into today's match as USAO held possession for most of the first half. The Drovers broke the tie in the 18^th minute with a goal by Angelo Leendertse that set the tone for the rest of the half. The Tigers tried to respond but could not get anything going offensively. The score would remain 1-0 in favor of the Drovers going into half time with the Tigers searching for a breakthrough.

For most of the second half, USAO dominated the possession, not letting the Tigers do anything. In the 85^th minute though, Central finally broke though. On a beautiful through ball from Logan Singh, Marco Cherchi found the back of the net to tie up the game at 1-1. The score would finish this way and go into two 10-minute overtime periods. After two overtimes, we still did not have a winner and had to into penalty kicks.

5 penalty kicks by each team had been taken and we still did not have a winner. After USAO netted their 6^th, the crowd started going crazy when they realized who was lining up to take the next PK for Central. It was none other than Tyler Hoxie, the senior who was injured in the first game of the season. After netting the penalty, he walked back to his teammates, fired up and in tears. Tied at 7-7, Central goalie TJ Foster produced the biggest save of his career when he stopped the USAO attempt. This gave Central the opportunity to advance into the next round and avenge their loss earlier in the year. Hilario Garcia-Delfin lined up for the Tigers and his kick was stopped by the Drover goalie. This turned it back to USAO to step up and convert. They did and again put pressure on the Tigers to stay alive. Francisco Liete measured his kick and once again, the Drover goalie was able to stop it short of the goal and sent USAO on to the next round of the SAC tournament.

 Coach Aaron Hoxie had this to say about the Tigers' performance, "Today was just a battle, a real grind.  Proud of the kids, of course.  Told each one of them that I was not in any way disappointed in them.  Penalties are a tough way to lose, and a great way to win.  The emotional swings are outrageous.  Quick shout out to the crowd today, was happy to see the support.  Thank you. The first half was difficult for us.  We know how they were going to play, and what we needed to do, but we struggled on the ball, and our decision making with the ball was not good.  Our standard was there, we just struggled with the soccer part of the game.  Despite that, it took an excellent goal to unlock us."

"I thought the second half was largely ours.  We started winning the physical battle, and we made better decisions on the ball, which helped us force them back.  From there, we just needed some quality, and we eventually found a piece of individual magic.  What a goal!  I thought we were unlucky not to get a second one a few minutes later, but just couldn't find it. Overtime periods are what they are.  Everyone is hurting, cramping, and just mentally done in.  At this point, it is more about who will capitalize on the first mistake.  I thought a second goal was coming for us, but again, these games are decided by quality in the right moments, and we just weren't able to convert one of our chances.  Despite this, I did not think they were generating anything, as our back line was stout all day. I thought it was a proper shootout.  Some real quality from both teams.  There's always some hard feelings, sadness, and second guessing, but penalties are what they are.  Tough on everyone."