Box Score By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
WICHITA, Kan. – The Murray State Aggies battled toe-to-toe with top-ranked Salt Lake Community College for 90 scoreless minutes of regulation and two overtime periods Sunday afternoon in the opening game of pool play action in the NJCAA National Soccer Tournament.

In the deciding penalty kick period however the Badgers connected on all five kicks while the Aggies found the back of the net on four to give the tournament's third seed a 1-0 victory.

There's little time for rest for Murray State, which slipped to 18-1-1 on the season, as the Aggies will face a must-win contest with Eastern Florida State at 3 p.m. Monday in order to keep their hopes alive of advancing to the tournament semifinals. It won't be an unfamiliar opponent as the Aggies edged the Titans, 3-2, in last year's national tournament.

Freshman Francisco Pinochet was stellar in goal throughout the contest, setting the tone just two and a half minutes into the contest with a diving save to keep the Badgers off the scoreboard. That proved to be one of his six saves in 110 minutes of action, several of the spectacular variety.|

Shots on goal for the Aggies were limited as they managed just five but the first opportunity came in the 16^th minute. Matias Bauza slashed an open shot off a Bryan Garcia pass toward the left corner of the net that was deflected at the last second on a one handed save by the Salt Lake keeper.

Murray State had two near misses in a row around the 11-minute mark as Garcia just missed a blast that was deflected high as was a 25-yard missile off the foot of Shuto Ishikawa.

Pinochet managed to hold off a late flurry by the Badgers with a pair of saves in the closing two minutes of the first half, including a leaping left handed deflection with 20 seconds remaining.

The second half was dominated by defense with one of the few chances for either team coming with just over 15 minutes left when a Salt Lake foul in the box negated a scoring header off a throw in.

Each team had one golden chance in the first overtime, but Pinochet saved the game by batting away a free kick with 1:34 on the clock. Ryosuke Miyata then blasted a potential game winner for the Aggies from 20 yards out moments later, but it was knocked away to force the second extra session, which went deadlocked as well.

Shooting first in the penalty kick portion, Carlos Zapata faked left and punched one through the right side to put Murray State in front. Miyata's boot toward the right side was stopped on the Aggies second shot, however. Gui Alves, Nicolo Donadio and Ilyan Meradji all connected for goals on their chances, but Salt Lake went a perfect five for five to get the pool victory.