RAPID CITY, S.D. – The South Dakota Mines men's soccer team played in its first RMAC contest on Friday evening. It was also senior day for the Hardrockers as they hosted Westminster.
In a thrilling contest, the Hardrockers sent their seniors out with a last-minute victory on an 89th-minute game-winning goal.
Despite saving the heroics for the last minute, South Dakota Mines played well throughout the contest, not allowing Westminster many chances to score and playing strong defensive soccer.
After going into halftime tied at 0, things changed. First Westminster could find the back of the net in the 52nd minute to break the tie, but from that point on it was all Hardrockers as South Dakota Mines outshot Westminster 8-1 the remainder of the game including .500 of them being on goal.
Despite the second half domination, the Hardrockers waited until 10 minutes in the game to take advantage. First,
Parker Yocom found the back of the net on what looked to be a cross attempt that deflected off a Westminster player.
That wasn't all for the 'Rockers as
Ethan French forced a save in the 87th minute. Moments later they earned a corner kick that was cleared out. Still, the pressure would continue as
Mateo Clagg had a beautiful shot attempt that was turned away only for the ball to find
Ethan French's foot once more and this time he placed it in the bottom corner, giving the Hardrockers a 2-1 lead and a jubilant team and crowd would celebrate the lead and what turned out to be the game-winning goal for French.
South Dakota Mines moves to 1-0 in RMAC play with the victory and has their second match set for Sunday at 1:00 p.m. against Colorado Mesa.
You can find the latest on South Dakota Mines soccer all year long on X (@hardrockermsoc) and Instagram (@hardrockersoccer), while also following on Facebook at Hardrocker Soccer. The latest on South Dakota Mines athletics can be found by following us on X at @GoHardrockers, hardrockerathletics on Instagram and Hardrocker Athletics on Facebook.
About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 13 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.
