Tesilimi's Penalty Kick; Tricarico's Save Sends Reivers to the Finals

WICHITA, KS (November 21st, 2024) - Iowa Western Men's Soccer defeated Indian Hills in penalty kicks to advance to the NJCAA D1 Men's Soccer National Tournament Final on Thursday evening.

110 minutes wasn't enough as the Reivers (21-0-3) and the Warriors (16-2-3) battled to a 1-1 draw and needed a shootout to decide who would play for a national title.  Both teams were deadlocked in the first half with five shots apiece, and both goalkeepers made tremendous saves.

The Reivers finally found a goal in the 84th minute as a shot from Brian Lopez was saved by Warrior Goalkeeper Jacopo Trolese. Hayato Takayama followed it and buried the deflection into the back of the net.

Indian Hills answered with 1:50 remaining in the match after a ball was played into the box, and in the scrum, Alessandro Peruz knocked it in to even the score.  

Both teams had multiple opportunities to win the game in overtime. The best chance came from Indian Hills in the 2nd overtime period, but Daniel Mulero's shot was kick-saved by the Reivers Freshman Goalkeeper Francesco Tricarico to keep the Reivers alive.

The match would be decided by penalties.  Carlos Camara and Aron Martinez made both of the first two attempts and Tricarico made a huge save on Indian Hill's 2nd attempt, diving to his left to save Mulero's attempt.  Takayama and Efraims Valutadatils added two more to make it 4-3 Reivers.  AJ Tesilimi stepped up and calmly sent a rocket into the back of the net to send Iowa Western into the finals.

The Reivers will be making the program's 4th trip to the NJCAA National Tournament finals and the first since the team won it all in 2021 vs Arizona Western 2-0 in Tyler, TX.

This is the first shootout victory since November 3rd, 2022, when the team defeated Lincoln Trail 11-10 in the Midwest District Semi-Finals.  It's also the third time this season that Iowa Western has defeated Indian Hills as Brown improves his record against the Warriors to 11-4-1 in his six seasons at the program's helm.

The team will meet the winner of Cowley (KS) and Eastern Florida State on Saturday, November 23rd at 4:00 pm for the championship, which can be seen on ESPN+.