Matadors making history

Men's soccer team advance to national semifinals

TYLER, Texas., (KYMA, KECY) - Arizona Western College men's soccer has already broken new ground before arriving to it's 2nd NJCAA Tournament appearance in 3 years.

The Matadors spent much of the season in the top 10 rankings and going unbeaten through their Region 1 Championship.

The perfect record was a 1st in program history.

After taking their only loss in the District final to top ranked Salt Lake Community College, the Mats qualified for the big dance as an at large seed.

The history making would continue in the NJCAA Tournament.

The Mats would win it's 1st game in tournament history on Tuesday, giving a 3-nil loss to LSU Eunice.

Michael Appiah, Romaric Berneron and Nozomu Kamei all contributed goals in that game.

Wednesday's match against Cowley would prove to be highly contested, as the Mats defeated #2 seed Cowley by a 3-2 result.

Romaric Berneron and Hugo Catherine each punched in a goal to give AWC the 2-nil lead at halftime.

But, the Mats would give up 2 quick goals within the 1st 5 minutes of the half to even up the score.

10 minutes later, AWC would take the lead for good, as Ridwane Boukraa would secure the final goal of the contest to punch their ticket to the semifinals for the 1st time ever.

The win would come with a price, as the Matadors suffered the injury bug; as Lachland Brooks, Federico Carranza, Ernie Garza and even Boukraa had to leave the latest match without returning.

The Mats will take on 3rd seeded Iowa Western in the national semifinal round this Friday.