James Quinn ended a scoreless draw three minutes, 41 seconds into overtime to give Wayland Baptist a 1-0 victory over Southwestern Assemblies of God University in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Hilliard Field.
The win in Wayland's first post-season game since claiming the national title last season sends the 13
th-ranked Pioneers (13-3) into the semifinals Tuesday at home against fifth-seeded Mid-America Christian (11-5), which went on the road to knock off fourth-seeded Oklahoma City University (11-5) on Saturday, 2-0. A time for Tuesday's match has not been set.
Tuesday's winner advances to the final to be played Friday at the site of the highest seed, which would be top-seeded Wayland if the Pioneers can get past MACU. The Evangels handed WBU one of its two regular-season conference losses, 1-0 in Oklahoma City on Sept. 29.
In other action Saturday, third-seeded Southwestern Christian lost at home to sixth-seeded John Brown, 2-1, and second-seeded USAO hosted seventh-seeded Texas Wesleyan at night.
Wayland had its hands full against No. 8 seed SAGU (6-12-1), a team Wayland defeated a month earlier on the same field, 2-0.
The Pioneers dominated the action, controlling the ball at least 90 percent of the time as the Lions seemed content to sit back and play defense.
Wayland ended with 27 shots compared to just three for SAGU.
"We had a lot of chances but just couldn't score," Ospina said.
The first 26 shots missed their mark, until Quinn came through with his fifth goal of the season.
Before his golden goal in what was Wayland's first overtime match of the season, Quinn took a shot that was deflected off a Lion defender, and
Jose Hincapie took another that was just wide.
On the game-winner,
Santiago Pereyra played a long ball in from the right side that was headed by two Lions in front of the SAGU goal. The left-footed Quinn gained control, took a dribble then from just left of the PK line fired a left-footed shot that appeared to deflect off a defender's foot and just out of reach of SAGU goalkeeper Jose Ladoriel into the left side of the net.
It was the fifth goal of the season for the senior defender from Slough, England.
Of Wayland's 27 shots, nine were on goal.
Chris Eduardo,
James Westfield and
Adir Versano all got off four shots apiece for the Pioneers.
Ospina said he was happy his team didn't get frustrated by not having any shots go in.
"You have chances and don't score and don't score. When that happens you can get desperate and make a mistake," the coach said. "But the guys did a good job keeping their heads the whole time."
It was the 11
th shutout of the season for WBU and the 10
th for senior keeper
Ziggy Camejo, who had to make only one save as his teammates again played tremendous defense.
"I'm glad for our defense because they kept their concentration most of the time," Ospina said.
The coach now looks forward to Tuesday's contest against MACU.
"We're excited for the game. We want to get a rematch and we now get a chance to play at home. It will be a really, really tough, physical game, but we'll be prepared.
"We're playing for everything now. We have to win the tournament to get (to nationals). We'll take it one game at a time."
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