Missouri Military Academy couldn’t break through Father Tolton’s defenses on Monday night.

MMA vs Father Tolton District Title Game Photo Gallery

For the third straight meeting, the Colonels were shut out by Tolton to lose the Class 1 District 4 tournament championship game 4-0 — the same score of the state-ranked teams’ regular season meeting. Tolton won its first district title since 2019 after turning away the Colonels, who played in their first soccer district title game since 2018.

MMA (13-7) hasn’t scored a goal against Tolton (14-9) since 2021, and head coach Elliot Goodwin said the reasons why were apparent on Monday night. The Colonels had Jose Orozco, who scored the game-winning goal in Thursday’s 3-1 semifinal win against Fatima, take two shots that just missed in the first half only for the chances to remain low during the game.

“The last couple times that we played them, they’ve been solid in all areas, especially defending,” Goodwin said. “They’re a hard team to play against. We stepped up tonight and gave it everything we got, but they’re back line is solid.”

Tolton doubled MMA up in shots at 12-6 so the Trailblazers didn’t have that many more scoring chances. When they did, they took advantage as Steven Becvar netted two goals in close range to put Tolton ahead within the first 28 minutes. 

When MMA tried to mount some offense, there were some stingy defenders waiting for them as they made the Colonels uncomfortable while trying to handle the ball. Goodwin said MMA were able to put the ball in desired areas of the field, but Tolton was then able to put the ball back from where it came.

“Playing against them before, knowing they have two really good center backs, we want to keep the ball away from them as much as possible and exploit them in wide areas,” Goodwin said. “Can we be dangerous in wide areas, trying to pull those players out of the center of the defensive unit and try to make them move? We did it in phases, but we didn’t do it consistently.”

Goodwin said MMA didn’t feel good after going into halftime down two goals but thought it set up scoring situations early in the second half, only for the zero to remain on the scoreboard. He said the Colonels have shown much quickness this season, which was countered with the physicality shown by Tolton in one-on-one moments for the ball.

“The battle and the fight we had in the center of the midfield really helped us,” Goodwin said. “We won the ball back in good areas, we were able to combine essential areas and move the ball well. I asked the boys before and even asked them in the second half to have no regrets coming off the field. Give everything that you can. If you can say that you’ve done that, you’ve done all that you can.”

Goodwin likes how the Colonels played in the second half and the performance they had out of the senior goalkeeper and first-year soccer player Joseph Roach, who finished with six saves. Roach jumped high in the air to snag a potential goal in the first half and dove at several moments to turn away shots in the second half.

MMA didn’t bring home its first district title since 2018 but came close to the win total of that team. The Colonels finished with the program’s most wins in a season since their 15-8 record in 2018. Goodwin hopes a lot of the players from this year’s team are able to return as he likes what they were able to accomplish and believes Monday isn’t a “true reflection” of this year’s Colonels.

“Hopefully, they enjoyed their experience the last three months that we’ve had them,” Goodwin said. “They put the work in, and they put their heart and soul into the last three months’ of practice and games. This is where we wanted to get to. It's a shame we’re not going to advance from this point, but we know that we did everything we could up to this point.”