The Eagles will play for the American Southwest Conference Tournament Championship and a spot in the NCAA III Tournament against UT-Dallas Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
No. 1-seeded Ozarks (17-4-0, 11-2-0) comes into the title match riding a 14-game conference home win streak. The Eagles took a 2-1 win over Mississippi College on Saturday to advance to the championship match for the fifth time under head coach Dave De Hart. Dan De Hart made the most of his first goal of the season with a header in the 14th minute against the Choctaws. Darren Clark all but secured the match with a goal in the 84th minute. No. 2-seeded UT-Dallas (14-3-2) earned their shot at the tournament championship by winning an emotional shootout (3-2) against UT-Tyler on Saturday. At the end of two overtimes, the score remained 1-1, but Comet freshman Mazi Rabiee eventually connected on a clutch goal in the shootout to advance the Comets.
Ozarks defeated the Comets 2-1 on September 22 in Richardson. The Eagles trailed 1-0 at the half, but rallied to score twice, with goals coming from Clark and Matt Engelman.
Ozarks has relied on a stingy defense throughout the year, but will have its hands full with Kevin White, who has scored 17 goals this season. Mihai Cotet follows with 8 goals.
Ozarks won the tourney title and advanced to the NCAA III tournament with a 2-1 win over the Comets back in 2003 on the campus of UTD. It was a Justin Goodman game-winner in the 73rd minute that sealed Ozarks first-ever tournament championship. UTD owns a 2-8-1 all-time record against the Eagles.
The winner of the match receives an automatic bid to the NCAA III tournament.
Audio streaming of the match can be heard at www.ombsports.com. Live stats can be found at http://www.ozarks.edu/athletics/msoccer/2007Tournament/default.asp. Locally, KXIO 106.9 FM will broadcast the game.
Topics: Athletics