Tiger soccer team suffers first defeat

Venturing out of conference to face Crowder College Monday in Neosho, MO, the No. 3-ranked Cowley College men's soccer team suffered its first loss of the season. The Tigers battled hard before losing 3-2 in overtime.

Cowley is now 9-1 on the season, while Crowder improves to 5-3-1.

For the second game in a row, Cowley faced a multi-goal deficit. After falling behind 2-0, Tiger sophomore Alexandre Picoto scored late in the first half to pull Cowley within 2-1.

Cowley would tie the game in the second half and force overtime when Picoto scored his second goal of the game, this time off an assist from Tsubasa Nakamori. Picoto is now tied for second on the team with five goals on the season.

In overtime, Cowley had a corner kick that Crowder cleared out and the Roughriders were able to score the game-winning goal off the counter attack.

"Crowder came prepared and I did not think we matched their energy," Cowley assistant coach Tanner Brock said. "We were too casual with the ball in the final third of the field and were unable to capitalize on some other scoring opportunities."

Brock served as interim head coach in Monday's contest as Tiger head coach Ruy Vaz was unable to attend the game due to receiving a Red card in Cowley's previous game.

Cowley will wrap up the regular season by playing at No. 19-ranked Barton County Saturday at 4 p.m. The Cougars (7-2-1) have lost just once their past six games. The loss happened to be a 2-0 defeat at Cowley back on April 21.

"We need to put this loss behind us, bounce back, and bring the fire and intensity we have played with throughout this season," Brock said.