MONTGOMERY, Ala. –The Auburn Montgomery men's soccer team saw their 2021 campaign in the Gulf South Conference Spring Championship Series come to a close after a 2-2 draw with West Alabama resulted in the Tigers advancing in penalty kicks, 10-9.
 
AUM finishes out 2021 with a record 3-0-2.
 
West Alabama scored the first goal of the contest in the 30th minute, when Jared Walker's corner kick would somehow find the upper left corner of the goal untouched to give the Tigers the 1-0 advantage. 
 
The Warhawks needed only three minutes to respond with the equalizer, however. Lucas Batistela made it a 1-1 game in the 33rd minute after a phenomenal run by Phillip Spickenbaum through the UWA backline resulted in a 2v1 with the UWA keeper.
 
The 1-1 score held all the way until the 87th minute, when a corner kick by Eric Besse would find the foot of Spickenbaum to put AUM up 2-1.
 
UWA answered in less than 10 seconds with the equalizer, as a misplayed clearance by AUM resulted in an open-net shot for Hugo Courchinox to make it 2-2. 
 
Defense prevailed in overtime, as neither team was able to tally a shot over 20 additional minutes.  
 
Both the Warhawks and Tigers took eight shots on the day, with AUM putting up three shots on goal to UWA's two. West Alabama took eight corner kicks while AUM recorded six. 
 
"I thought we really put some markers down this season as a program," Head Coach Matthew Thorne said. "We got ourselves ranked in the top 25 nationally and finished out the regular season as the number-one seed in our group. Big derby games against teams like West Alabama are always going to be back-and-forth. It was a very crazy game with some big goals late, especially when they equalized. I'm very proud of my boys. There were lots of moments where they could have dropped their head, but we never stopped playing and I'm proud of every single one of them. Penalties can honestly be a coin flip. We had nine lads put their penalties away and still not win it, but that's just a part of it. We're obviously very gutted to lose in PK's, but we've just got to move on. Most of this team will be back next season and we'll have some key additions brought in this offseason that are also going to make us better. We're very excited for this program and the direction that we are headed."
 
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