By JOE BUIE, Staff Writer, Tyler Morning Telegraph

The Tyler Junior College men's soccer team is no longer fit to be tied.

The Apaches avenged a season-opening tie with Barton County (Kan.) with a 3-0 win over the Cougars Friday night in the semifinals of the NJCAA Division I Soccer Tournament at Pat Hartley Field.

"I think that was definitely motivation for them tonight, without question," TJC head coach Steve Clements said. "That's the only blemish on those sophomores' record in two years."

TJC (19-0-1) extended its winning streak to 19 games and halted No. 4 Barton's at 19, putting the Apaches within a victory of back-to-back national titles.

The No. 1 Apaches will play No. 3 Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (22-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday in the final. The Surge advanced to their first national title match by beating No. 2 Monroe (N.Y.) in double overtime, 2-1.

Barton (20-4-1) denied TJC for a half before Dom Dwyer scored his 35th goal of the season in the 64th minute. Dwyer scored unassisted off a turnover and beat the goalkeeper one-on-one.

"Barton is hard to break down defensively," Clements said. "They did a good job here last time (in a scoreless tie). What Barton did tonight was … try to disrupt play. There were a lot of guys going down ... it was a slowdown.

"It's just a matter of time and we were able to find a little rhythm finally and get one through. If you get one, you're generally going to get more."

The Apaches made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later with Jack Bennett's header off a short free kick from Kyle Nicholls.

The clincher came in the 75th minute with the third goal, a perfectly executed Nicholls cross to a charging Anis Abdulgasem, who punched it in with the left foot.

The scoreboard painted a picture of total domination. The Apaches took 10 corner kicks and five shots on goal, while Barton managed only one shot on goal and no corners.

The biggest obstacle for TJC, besides the Barton defense, was the home team's own impatience.

"We had taken many trips down there, we had many opportunities, we just couldn't get the ball in the net," Clements said. "We could never really make that final pass to get us in there."

Cincinnati State 2, Monroe 1, 2OT

Carl Peers scored for the Surge with 4:15 remaining in the second overtime after Monroe failed to clear the ball deep in the 18-yard box.

"Two defenders came at me and tried to play the ball past me and I stood my ground," Peers said. "I got the ball again and stood my ground again and all I could see was one on one with the goalkeeper and I just chipped it over him."

Anthony Asante scored off a counter to give Monroe a 1-0 lead in the 70th minute. Ashton Bennett pulled the Surge even in the 82nd minute.

Each team had a shot on goal in overtime, and the Surge had one corner kick to finish with seven to Monroe's two. Surge goalkeeper Austin Morgan had three key saves.

Consolation Semifinals

Lincoln (Ill.) 4, Otero (Colo.) 1

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Darton (Ga.) 4, Iowa Western 3

Edwin Moalosi scored back-to-back goals in the 83rd and 89th minutes to break open a close match as Lincoln eliminated Otero.

Stiven Salinas gave Lincoln a 2-0 lead with two early goals, and Otero pulled within 2-1 on a Karamba Janneh shot in the 25th minute.

Mynor Perez scored the game-winner for Darton in the 82nd minute -- his 30th goal of the season.

The match was tied 2-2 at halftime with goals from Matt Tobin (Darton), Erik Maldonado (Iowa Western), Ignacio Mateos (IW) and Diego Ramos (Darton).

Iowa Western went up 3-2 on an Adam Morris penalty kick, but Sebastian Vallejo tied it for Darton in the 78th minute.

Link to Original Article:  http://tylerpaper.com/article/20101120/SPORTS06/11200350