The Allen Community College soccer team may have felt like salmon swimming upstream Wednesday.
The Red Devils fell behind two goals early in their match against Johnson County, and then fought back to even the score to 3-3.
But a crucial non-call that allowed Johnson County a corner kick led to Dominic Zuniga’s header for the decisive goal in Johnson County’s 4-3 victory.
Allen came up empty on a golden scoring opportunity in the game’s last 10 minutes, but both shots missed in a mad scramble in front of the JCCC goal.
“We’ve gotta stop putting ourselves in a hole,” Red Devil head coach Doug Desmarteau said. “We allow other things to dictate the game.”
The game-winner came as Allen’s players and coaches howled in protest, saying Johnson County should have been penalized for a hand ball instead of the corner kick.
The protests grew so loud that the officials gave Allen’s coaches a yellow card.
“That’s frustrating, but we put ourselves in that position to allow a non-call to make a difference,” Desmarteau said. “If we put away some goals and don’t give away goals, we win that game by two or three.”
Desmarteau lamented the Red Devils’ inability to hold tight on defense.
Johnson County had six shots on goal in the match, scoring on four of them.
The first came off a corner kick 6½ minutes into the match. Another followed a minute later to leave the Red Devils in a 2-0 hole.
ACC’s Finnlay Aherne took a feed from Saviola Blake and cashed it home from the right side to slice the deficit in half in the 20th minute. Alexa Almeda followed with a goal in the 35th minute on an assist from Amogleang Mooke to knot the score.
The elation was short-lived as the Cavaliers responded quickly, retaking a 3-2 lead.
Almeda scored his second goal of the match on a nifty play from the middle of the field in the 63rd minute to knot the score again.
Allen pressed on a couple of scoring chances from there, but the hands of fate were not smiling on the home team.
