CHICKASHA —
The USAO men's soccer team was upset at home Saturday afternoon, dropping out of the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament in the first round to Oklahoma City University.
The Drovers played to a 1-1 tie with the Stars after two overtimes, but lost in penalty kicks. Although the Stars advance in the tournament, the game was technically a tie and brings USAO's record to 13-0-4.
Head coach Jimmy Hampton was disappointed with the result, and the way the team had played leading up to the game.
"We hadn't played well, then we found the net, but then it was a combination of errors," Hampton said. "We just weren't very good. We've been struggling as of late I think. We struggled at Wayland, we struggled at Lubbock. Tough way to end the year."
USAO took a 1-0 lead with 28:49 left in the second half, when Scott Parkinson scored on a corner-kick assist from Niall Burley.
The Stars answered back with their own goal by Trevor Harmon at the 15:16 mark, getting three chances at the goal on a corner kick the Drovers failed to clear.
"A comedy of errors in the back," Hampton said. "I thought we were awful in the back, thought we were awful in the midfield, and I thought we were terrible up top."
It was a physical game throughout, with the two rival teams often getting involved in some extracurricular pushing and shoving during and after plays.
"I'm probably a little disappointed in my team for getting involved, because that's right up [OCU's] alley," Hampton said. "It's what they do, it's the way they play, and we're better on the football side, so the more they can get us involved in that stuff, the better chances they have and maybe a little disappointed in us not doing a better job of staying out.
"Advantage them, they came in and put their style on the game and took us out of ours," he said.
USAO still has a chance to make it into the NAIA National Tournament, but no longer controls its own destiny. The Drovers will have to wait until Nov. 11 to see whether they are granted an at-large bid in the tournament.
"It's a cruddy way to end the season to be unbeaten, and I don't know that we deserve to go to the national tournament," Hampton said. "Maybe an at-large bid, but you don't want to go if you can't play."
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