The UMKC men's soccer team kept rolling on Saturday afternoon in the season finale, scoring two early goals and taking a 3-1 win against Air Force on senior day at Durwood Stadium, its fourth straight win.
UMKC (6-8-2, 4-3-1 WAC) jumped on the Falcons (6-6-4, 2-5-1 WAC) from the start, with junior defender Guerrero Pino making a 70 yard run up the field in the third minute. He intercepted an Air Force pass on the defensive half of the field, dribbled it forward, for a give-and-go pass at about 40 yards out, then took the ball past a pair of AFA defenders and into the box, where he finished from 15 out.
In the 15th minute, UMKC got a free kick just outside the box in the middle of the field. Senior Michael Oakley took the chance well, hitting a low screamer to the right of the wall and into the bottom corner of the net, making it 2-0.
The ‘Roos put several other balls inside the box, but either the ‘Roos couldn’t quite connect on the end of it, or AFA goalkeeper Jake Schenk made the save, including a hard-hit ball from the right side by Austin Wilcox in the 18th minute.
UMKC took that 2-0 advantage into the halftime break, and honored the six seniors during that time as well. The ‘Roos had a 4-2 shot advantage as well.
The second stanza saw UMKC possess early, but the next goal came on a counter attack. Nick Cramer took a ball off his chest inside the ‘Roos half, and was able to turn inside and play a perfect long, low through ball to his brother, Broc Cramer for a breakaway. He fended off a defender, then calmly placed it past the keeper to make it 3-0 in the 48th minute.
The ‘Roos settled back after that, and got several players into the contest for big minutes. It pleasant effort for the coaching staff on the offensive end, as Jordan Rideout and reigning WAC Player of the Week, Wes White, were both out of the contest.
The Falcons scored a late tally with just 1:28 remaining in the game to spoil the shutout, but it wasn’t enough to keep the ‘Roos from taking their WAC-leading four-game win streak. The consecutive run is the longest for UMKC since taking four in a row in 2012. UMKC also improved to 2-0 against the Falcons in Kansas City.
AFA held a narrow 10-9 shot advantage, but never really looked threatening until late. UMKC moved its point total to 13, good for a three-way tie for third in the standings.