Missouri Military Academy soccer repeats as Moberly Invitational champion

Missouri Military Academy soccer is not where it wants to be yet but still liked the place it was on Saturday.

MMA, Mexico in Moberly Invitational Photo Gallery

For the second straight year, the Colonels won their division in the Moberly Invitational, going 3-0 in the blue division this year after defeating Smith-Cotton 1-0 on Friday and then Wright City 4-1 and Kirksville 2-1 on Saturday. 

Head coach Elliot Goodwin said he was glad MMA was able to win the title outright this season as it finished 2-0-1 last year and needed the tiebreaker of least goals conceded. He said the defense is a big reason why the victory is sweeter this year, and the Colonels have a “centerback partnership” Avin Hernandez and Gaston Gastelum leading their back line.

“It started on Friday night against a strong (Class 4) Smith-Cotton team — a much bigger school than us,” Goodwin said. “Even our backline, the boys that have been back there have listened, learning lessons that I’ve given them, and they’ve put it into play. We don’t try to make it too complicated. If we need to clear the ball, we clear the ball — simple as that.”

Goodwin said those two players do good work in the back and then move forward and that sets up the Colonels to do damage on their offensive side of the field. MMA’s damage included goals from Gabriel Rodriguez Sanchez against Smith-Cotton, Jose Elizondo Villarreall on one goal and Alvaro Gonzalez with a hat trick against Wright City, and Jose Orozco and Avin Hernandez against Kirksville.

Gonzalez’s hat trick was his second of the season after netting one against Canton, and it is MMA’s third hat trick this season. Goodwin said some Colonels have had great individual performances, but those are possible from great team performances.

“It comes from a full-squad effort,” Goodwin said. “I don’t identify one player as having a great game. It would be a whole team effort if we ultimately come on the right side of the victory. We need players to step up around the goal to score goals, and they’ve been doing that. We’ve had defenders scoring goals, midfielders scoring goals and forwards getting goals, and it’s great.”

MMA is 7-1 this season and is happy after beating out tough competition over the weekend, but Goodwin said there are many tough challenges ahead this year.

“I’ve told the boys (Saturday) isn’t the end of our season but rather a good midpoint for us,” Goodwin said. “We’ve got to keep building from this point and moving forward.”

MMA won 4-1 district foe Fatima (2-3) on Monday before staying on the road at 5 p.m. Thursday against Kirksville (3-4).

Younger Colonels run in Fulton Invitational

Missouri Military Academy sent a bunch of younger runners to the Fulton Invitational on Saturday.

In the middle school 3,200 meters, Rfred Cordero had the best finish with his 62nd place time of 15:00.83. Joshua Miller was the lone varsity runner in the 5,000 meters and he ran to a 95th place finish with a time of 22:36.76. Out of the junior varsity boys in the 5,000 meters, Alexander Nikas was 64th with a time of 23:41.34.