Raeburn Drives SFCC Roadrunners to Victory
The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners soccer team picked up their third consecutive victory, 5-2, over Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) on Thursday night, Sept. 3 at the Smith-Cotton Soccer Field.
SFCC (3-1) jumped on the scoreboard first with a goal from freshman Narshon Sylvester off of a rebound with 37 minutes remaining in the opening half.
Freshman Raheem Raeburn scored the first of his four goals in the game with less than 35 minutes remaining until halftime. Raeburn scored again off of a counterattack with less than 11 minutes to go until halftime. Raeburn scored his third goal of the night with fewer than seven minutes remaining in the half to record a hat trick before halftime.
SFCC took a 4-0 lead into halftime.
"Kansas City Kansas is a good team that will win a lot of games," said Roadrunners head coach Michael Poropat. "I believe our leadership committee has been doing a good job of leading our warmup and getting players ready to play at the first whistle. I think we might've surprised them a little bit with our speed up front, getting off to a good start is a good way to get a result."
KCKCC fought their way back into the game with a goal with 30 minutes and nine seconds remaining in the game. They added their final goal of the game to trim the SFCC lead to 4-2 with less than eight minutes remaining in the contest.
Raeburn got behind the defense once again with about 12 seconds remaining in the game to put the game away for SFCC.
"Raheem is a very talented striker," said Poropat. "He works hard; it's not just the skill, it's not just the pace. He presses the opponents. He does the little things. He never shies away from doing the dirty work."
Freshman goalkeeper Rondell Nelson got the start in goal for SFCC. Nelson made several big plays for SFCC in the game, including stopping two second half penalty kicks.
"If Rondell doesn't save those two penalty kicks, it is probably 4-4 in the last minute of the game," said Poropat. "We have saved three penalty kicks as a team so far this season."
"I thought we communicated and moved the ball well," said Raeburn. "We were also able to get off to a fast start in the game. Hopefully, we can continue to do those things well again on Saturday."
SFCC will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 5 with a match against John Wood Community College. Kickoff from the Smith-Cotton Soccer Field is scheduled for 7 p.m.
David Rohrbach -- SFCC Athletics
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