MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Nov. 5, 2014) â€" Despite a rallying goal by Thomas Suits in the 84th minute, the Milligan College men's soccer team fell to Montreat College 3-1 in the opening round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament Wednesday evening at Anglin Field.
 
Milligan ended its season with an overall record of 6-9-2 (3-6 AAC), and Montreat College improved to 6-11 (1-8 AAC). The Cavaliers will face St. Andrews University on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
 
The Buffaloes struggled to find traction as they were constantly knocked back by the Cavalier defense. After a goal by Esgardo Arroya only three minutes in and a second goal by Dylan McFarlane later in the first half (25:02), Montreat's play style became even more defensive, focusing on double-teaming any Milligan players who attempted to move past midfield.
 
However, the Buffs created opportunities to score throughout the game. Their first opportunity came in the ninth minute as Tapiwa Kaseke fired a shot at the goal off of a breakaway, but Montreat goalkeeper Brandon Sagon made a dive to push the ball just out of range of the goal.
 
Kaseke struck again in the 27th minute as he broke away once again from a defender and launched the ball only inches shy from the outside post.
 
A third close opportunity for Milligan came with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half as Jesse Ramoya headed a corner kick from Lewis Grant toward the net, but again, the ball moved only inches short of the post.
 
In the second half, Montreat struck once more as Dale McClelland headed in a corner kick from Arroya, extending the Cavalier lead to three.
 
Suits attempted to rally the Buffs with an arching goal from deep center field six minutes later, but it would be too late, as Montreat kept the Buffs without any shots for the rest of the game to take the win.
 
Kaseke, Anthony Matekenya and Lucas Maia all took two shots at the goal, with each sending in one on goal as well. Senior Dan Ball matched his season-high of seven saves on the evening, putting him only 11 saves away from the Milligan College record of 264 career saves set by Bryan Newbold in 2009.