By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Kirtland, Ohio---The Owens Community College men's soccer team put together one of the most impressive runs in program history, but saw its season end with a 1-1 (4-3 PK) loss to No. 10 Schoolcraft College in the Region XII championship game at Lakeland Community College today.

Owens entered the game with a 10-0-1 record in its past 11 games with the tie coming in a 0-0 double overtime result at Schoolcraft College on Oct. 21. The team's last loss came Sept. 30 against Cincinnati State.

Today's game saw Owens take the lead just 1:12 in via Matt Almester's (St. John's Jesuit/Toledo, Ohio) 23rd goal of the season, which came unassisted.

Schoolcraft's Victor Contreras hit the crossbar on a shot later in the half before eventually connecting on another shot at the 34:40 mark to tie the game.

Owens missed a golden opportunity to re-take the lead when Almester missed a penalty kick attempt with 2:05 left in the half.

In the second half, Owens out-shot Schoolcraft 10-6, but the two teams headed to overtime. In the two extra 10 minute sessions, both teams tightened up defensively with neither team producing a shot. Owens, however, thwarted three corner kicks by Schoolcraft in the second overtime.

In the penalty kick session, Ian Richey (Kalida/Kalida, Ohio) and Cooper Huslig (Mountain View/Tucson, Ariz.) missed on the first two attempts for Owens, while Schoolcraft made their first two.

Following that, Reiss Liggitt (Seminole/Birmingham, England), Hector Aguirre Jr. (Rossford/Rossford, Ohio) and Almester made the final three attempts for Owens to give them a chance, but Schoolcraft made its final two kicks after a save by Owens goalkeeper Kyle Rowan (Perrysburg/Perrysburg, Ohio) on their third attempt.

With the loss, Owens finishes its season at 14-7-2 overall, while Schoolcraft improves to 14-2-3 and advances to the district championship game against CCBC-Essex next weekend.

Notes

Today marked the fourth Region XII championship game appearance for Owens (2005, 2007, 2013). They are 1-3 in those games with two of the losses coming in PKs, and the only win was in PKs.

This year's team was the first to win two postseason games since the 2005 team.