Tigers' bid to return to national title game comes up short in 2-1 loss to Indian Hills
So close. Advancing to the semifinals of the national tournament for the second straight year, the No. 3-seed Cowley College Tigers had its season come to an end with a 2-0 loss to No. 8-seed Indian Hills (IA) Community College on Thursday at the NJCAA Division I Soccer National Championships held in Daytona Beach, FL.
Indian Hills (11-6-4) advances to Saturday's national title game at 2 p.m. (CST), while the Tigers finish the season with a record of 16-2-1.
The Warriors and Tigers previously faced each other on October 4, with Cowley winning 1-0 in Ottumwa, IA. However, this time it would be Indian Hills that would emerge victorious.
The Warriors did not take long to go in front as Enzo de Almeida scored his ninth goal of the season with 33:52 left in the first half. De Almeida would add his 10th goal with 24 minutes left before halftime as the Warriors' lead grew to 2-0.
The score would remain that way until late in the contest. With Cowley continuing to pressure the Warriors, the Tigers finally broke through when Alberto de Miguel scored off an assist from Leonardo Leitao to pull Cowley within 2-1 with 7:16 left to play. Two of de Miguel's three goals on the season came at the national tournament.
However, the Warriors were able to hang on for the one-goal victory, ending the Tigers' season one game short of where they finished a year ago.
After losing in last year's national championship game, this year's group of sophomores leaves behind a tremendous legacy, having won 32 games and lost only four. Sophomores are Dominic Leister, Jin Tokishi, Guilherme Coutinho, Hayata Kobayashi, Keitatsu Yoshida, Renan Syrio, Reece Blankenship, Kanta Ishii, Leonardo Leitao, Holden Schaefer, Alberto de Miguel, and Mauricio Groppo.
Having been on the cusp of a first-ever national championship in the program's history, Cowley College head coach Marcos Ribeiro will return several talented players to build around, such as all-conference performers Rikito Takeuchi, Lukas Lowry, Nino Inchico, and Yushin Nakano.