Allen Community College has suffered some heart-breaking defeats in the 2013 season, twice seeing second-half leads dissolve in overtime losses.
Wednesday’s may have been the most gut-wrenching of them all.
Holding a 1-0 lead despite being down a player to the 14th-ranked Coffeyville Red Ravens, ACC saw the lead dissipate with 2:08 left in regulation on an Edgar Aranda free kick.
The teams stayed even until just 15 seconds remained in overtime, when Coffeyville’s Paulo Vac Claudio scored on a breakaway to give the Ravens a 2-1 win.
Allen fell to 1-3 in Jayhawk Conference and Region VI play and 3-5 overall.
The Red Devils were in line for their most impressive win of the season after Oscar Marrufo took a Brett Rex feed and blasted the ball past the Coffeyville goalkeeper with 7:56 left.
“We’re a good team,” Allen head coach Doug Desmarteau said. “Obviously, we need to figure out a way to keep our composure in the second half.”
The Red Devils played a man down for more than 75 minutes after sophomore Dorian Fox, the team’s leading scorer, was given a red card and disqualified for the remainder of the match.
Even so, Allen was the aggressor for the rest of the first half and much of the second.
The Red Devil offense was clicking from early after intermission, with Allen just missing on a number of scoring opportunities.
“You’ll see that a lot, where the team down a player shows a lot more energy,” Desmarteau said.
A foul on Coffeyville led to a free kick by Rex with just under 8 minutes left in the game. He fed Marrufo on the right side. Marrufo’s blast snaked past the Coffeyville goalkeeper.
The tenor changed after ACC’s goal. Coffeyville amped up its pressure, unloading a number of point-blank shots, all fielded cleanly by Red Devil goalkeeper Chase Tonkin.
“Chase played really well for us,” Desmarteau said.
Aranda’s free kick, just beyond the reach of Allen Tonkin came after the referee restarted play despite Desmarteau’s pleas for a delay. The delay was never called. The goal counted.
