Celebrate Later: No. 7 Roadrunners Beat Blinn in District Semifinal

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Gary Stallard
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Angelina College’s Luan Rangel (15) leans into a shot attempt during Wednesday’s match against Blinn College. The No. 7 Roadrunners beat the Bucs 4-1 to advance to Friday’s title game of the NJCAA’s Gulf South District tournament, where AC will host No. 6 Tyler Junior College. (Gary Stallard/AC Athletics photo)

AC Hosting District Championship vs. Tyler on Friday

There was virtually no celebration following Wednesday’s big win. A few hugs, some handshakes and a nod to the crowd – that was about it as a subdued Angelina College men’s soccer team wrapped up its 10th win of the season against zero losses.

It’s not that the win wasn’t a big one. In fact, the No. 7 Roadrunners’ 4-1 win over Blinn College’s Buccaneers in the NJCAA’s Gulf South District semifinal extended the guys’ remarkable season by another match – and that will be the one meriting a bigger celebration.

Angelina College’s Filliph Kamfjord (14) avoids a Blinn defender’s sliding tackle attempt during Wednesday’s match. The No. 7 Roadrunners beat the Bucs 4-1 to advance to Friday’s title game of the NJCAA’s Gulf South District tournament, where AC will host No. 6 Tyler Junior College. (Gary Stallard/AC Athletics photo)

The match will be for the District championship, and the ‘Runners will host Tyler College on Friday with a berth to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament on the line.

To get there, the Roadrunner offense on Wednesday relied on the same relentless attack lifting them to this position all season long. Christian Castaneda danced around defenders to send home a sweet feed from teammate Kaito Ueki in the 15th minute, but the Buc defense stiffened to make that the only score of the first half.

Then AC broke it open in the second half with a pair of goals in quick succession. Ueki slipped through a small opening in the Blinn defense to score off Lennart Poth’s feed in the 60th minute, and Omar Mora followed two minutes later with a goal set up on a Castaneda cross.

Angelina College’s Omar Mora (10) leads the offense up the pitch during Wednesday’s match against Blinn College. The No. 7 Roadrunners beat the Bucs 4-1 to advance to Friday’s title game of the NJCAA’s Gulf South District tournament, where AC will host No. 6 Tyler Junior College. (Gary Stallard/AC Athletics photo)

Blinn’s Diego Ramos would score his team’s only goal in the 64th minute, but AC’s Eric Ortiz converted a breakaway setup from Filliph Kamfjord with just four minutes to play to cap the scoring.

AC keeper Viktor Hojbjerg slapped away six of the seven Blinn shots on goal, and the Roadrunner back line did its part in thwarting several Buc runs.

Angelina College’s Filliph Kamfjord (14) wins the ball against a Blinn College defender during Wednesday’s match. The No. 7 Roadrunners beat the Bucs 4-1 to advance to Friday’s title game of the NJCAA’s Gulf South District tournament, where AC will host No. 6 Tyler Junior College. (Gary Stallard/AC Athletics photo)

The seventh-ranked Roadrunners (10-0-2) now host a showdown with No. 6 Tyler Junior College at 7 p.m. on Friday. The two teams battled to a classic 1-1 draw back in September in their only meeting of the season.

The match’s winner earns an automatic berth to the national tournament, while the runner-up will have to wait for a possible at-large bid.

Admission to all AC Athletics events is free. The match will be live-streamed on the AC Athletics YouTube channel (roadrunner_athletics).

The email for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.

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Gary Stallard
Sports Information Director Gary Stallard, who also serves as a Liberal Arts Instructor, begins his eleventh season with Angelina College. Following a career as a U.S. Marine, Stallard completed his bachelor’s degree at Stephen F. Austin University, where he majored in English and Journalism. For more than 16 years, he has worked as a sports writer/columnist/photographer for the Lufkin Daily News; he continues to contribute free-lance articles on occasion. Stallard has won several awards for writing, including the Golden Hoops Award for basketball writing in 2003, Regional Sports Writer of the Year in 2004, and the Texas Press Association’s first-place award for column writing in 2007 and in 2014. He has also done basketball, football and baseball radio and live streaming play-by- play and color commentary for an ESPN affiliate. Currently Stallard serves as play-by-play broadcaster for AC basketball, baseball and softball games. Prior to arriving at Angelina College, Stallard taught English at Lufkin High School for four years. He currently teaches Developmental Writing classes at AC. He and his wife Susan live in Lufkin.

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