Wildcats look to lock up tournament berth, improve ranking


The Wiley College men’s soccer team hopes to secure the opportunity to defend its Red River Athletic Conference Tournament title, when it visits Texas College at 3 p.m. Thursday and Jarvis Christian College at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The Wildcats (6-4-1, 4-3 in RRAC) enters this week in fourth-place. The top six teams qualify for the tournament. The third and fourth seeds will host the first round on November 4. Wiley College can clinch a spot with two wins or one win and a Huston-Tillotson loss.

Texas College (8-6-3, 3-2-2) is in fifth and has gone 0-2-2 since winning its first three conference games. The Steers have the conference leading scorer Confidence Ogo, who has 16 goals, 74 shots and 41 on goal. Wiley College is 4-3 against Texas College under coach Demetrio Hernandez.

“We need to score more than one goal,” Hernandez said. “We need to create more opportunities to shoot the ball. The defense has got to be solid and the midfielders need to keep possession of the ball. Our bench needs to play a role. It’s going to be a tough game.”

Jarvis Christian (3-15, 1-6) is eliminated from tournament contention and is coming off a 4-0 loss against Paul Quinn College. The Bulldogs only conference victory was 1-0 double overtime victory against University of the Southwest on October 20. The Wildcats have split their previous two meetings with Jarvis Christian. Wiley College lost the last meeting 4-1 last season but played its reserves in the first half.

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