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         Houghton Men Fall in Region IX Semi-Finals

Rio Grande, Ohio—The Houghton College men lost 3-0 to the University of Rio Grande in the semifinals of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Region IX tournament Saturday afternoon.

“For the first 30 minutes we were good, and then they broke us down a bit and created a few more chances,” said Matthew Webb, Houghton’s head coach.

In the 39th minute, Rio Grande converted one of those chances when Wayne Maden headed in a corner kick from Jason Massie for a 1-0 lead.

Rio Grande broke the game open with a goal in the first minute of the second half. “That was really a dagger,” said Webb. It was a Massie corner kick again, this time converted by Darren Griffiths.

Rio finished the scoring less than ten minutes later on a goal from Ederson Lopes, with Massie collecting his third assist of the game. “They scored all three goals in about 16 minutes,” Webb said, “That was it.”

The win was a reversal of the result of an earlier meeting between these two teams, when Houghton went to Rio and won 2-1. Since that game, Rio is 8-0-1 and ranked 18th in the latest NAIA poll.

The win sends the Redmen, now 12-4-1, into the NAIA Region IX final against the winner of other semifinal match-up between Ohio Dominican and Notre Dame College on Tuesday night., with the winner to earn an automatic berth in the national tournament.

The loss ends Houghton’s season at 9-4-5.