By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
TISHOMINGO – As Murray State students symbolically carried off the Aggie goal in celebration after the clock struck zero Sunday afternoon, Aggie head soccer coach John Connor couldn't help but smile.

The Aggie third-year skipper had stressed since the season started that his men's squad was capable of beating anybody, and over an incredible two-week stretch the Aggies proved him to be prophetic. Murray State capped the magical journey with a 3-1 Mid-South District Championship win over Hill College in front of a huge, energetic crowd to earn a trip to the NJCAA National Tournament for the first time in school history.

Connor's club won its fourth straight playoff contest while upping their season record to 13-4-1. The Aggies move on and will play in the national championship tournament that is slated for November 12-18 at Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, Kansas. Seedings and pairings for that event will be released on Tuesday.

"I've told the guys since day one this year that if we show up and play like we are capable, we are as good as anybody," Connor stated. "If we don't, then we are our own worst enemy. The guys so deserve this, and they can enjoy it now."

Murray State seemed a bit out of sync in a highly-charged start to the game in front of a boisterous crowd and facing head-on into a consistent southerly wind. Hill took advantage with Deion Miller slipping a deflected shot past goalkeeper Jaron Noble less than nine minutes into the contest.

Despite shots continuing to be limited for the Aggies, the Murray State defense was up to the task, turning away the final eight shot attempts for the Rebels with Noble saving six of those.

The Aggies finally broke the scoring ice with 21:36 remaining as leading scorer Lucas Peruzo took a pass from Dominic Woolley on the left side and sliced it past the Hill keeper into the corner of the net.

That's how it remained through the rest of the first half with a 1-1 deadlock going to intermission, but it was an entirely different approach in the second half with the Aggies back to their aggressive style with the wind at their backs.

It took little time to see the difference as Murray State began peppering the Rebel goal with shot after shot despite being collared for just four total shots on goal prior to the break. Meanwhile, the Aggies' backline defensive unit of Uros Vulovic, Victory Mayrink, Caio Felipe and Nathan Sealy turned away virtually every Hill push into the offensive end.

The Rebels managed just two shots on goal over the final 45 minutes.

Following some near misses, Murray State finally found the back of the net for the go-ahead score with 28:19 to play with Joel Green punching through a deflection from just outside the goal box.

Murray State added an insurance goal for icing on the cake with 9:15 left in the contest when Ethan Squires headed in a pass from Woolley on the right side of the field.

"Our backline played great," Connor said. "Uros was just fantastic. We played the game we needed to play. I thought our emotions were running a little too high early and they scored the first goal. It's a very difficult game to play when you are highly emotional. We settled down though and got a really good goal from Lucas to tie it.

"I told the guys at halftime we had not played our best and it was still just 1-1. We needed to go make it ours in the second half and they did it. We trusted and believed and made it happen. We had a lot of scoring chances in the second half. We did what we had to do to get to nationals. Now we get to enjoy it for a little bit."