Cobra Men advance in Region Tournament

The Parkland College Men's Soccer team (10-8-1) beat Southwestern Illinois College (9-6-4) 2-1 Saturday to advance to the Region 24 semifinals. The first 24 minutes of the match went scoreless, despite several scoring chances from both sides. In the 25th minute, the Cobras scored the first goal of the match when Gregg Flores passed the ball to Khody Ellis just outside the SWIC penalty area. Ellis dribbled around a SWIC defender and played a ball across to find Douglass Andrade, who banged the ball into the net. The 1-0 Cobra lead didn't last long however, as SWIC freshman Alex Novy was able to recover a rebound in the Parkland box and scored to tie the match in the 29th minute. Then, just before halftime, Andrade would ensure the Cobras would take a lead into halftime. Dhani Cerra played a ball from the half line in front of a streaking Andrade, who took a touch to position the ball and struck a fantastic shot in stride to beat the diving SWIC goalkeeper and score in the 43rd minute. The second half was back and forth, with SWIC outshooting the Cobras 16-6 on the day, but 15 saves by goal keeper Jason Saucedo and and key stops by Cobra defenders helped secure the win.

With the victory, PC moves on to face the #1 seed in Region 24 and NJCAA #17 ranked Lincoln College (15-3-0). The match will be played at Lincoln on Wednesday at 2pm. The winner will advance to the Region 24 Championship on Saturday, Oct. 29.