The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Men's Soccer team routed Riverland 10-0 in the Region XIII semifinals on Saturday, and held on to defeat Century College 2-1 on Sunday to claim the NJCAA Region XIII Championship.
Semifinals vs. Riverland
The Golden Rams wasted little time in taking care of Riverland on Saturday evening.
Anoka-Ramsey knocked the ball around almost at will before Hussein Mohamed scored a fantastic knuckling shot from 25 yards out in the 9th minute.
Pablo Ramos-Daza would score before Mohamed added a second just 12 minutes later.
Kaluba Eiden scored in the 27th minute but the goal of the night, and perhaps the season, was scored by Joni Martinez in the 32nd minute. Joni unleashed an absolute scorcher from 35 yards out that the goalkeeper had no chance on.
Pedro Ramirez would also score to round out the first half with a 6-0 lead.
The second half was more of the same as Jordan Lake, a second from Pedro, a goal from Cesar Cervantes and a wonderful header from Josiah Donat finished out the scoring.
The final shot count was 39-0 as the Rams were dominant for the entire 90 minutes.
Finals vs. Century
In an intense Region XIII Championship match that saw 44 total fouls, Anoka-Ramsey was able to come out on top with a 2-1 victory.
Joni Martinez got the Golden Rams on the board first in the 8th minute, scoring off of a free kick.
The rest of the half was back and forth, neither team able to get in much of a groove.
Sam Winning came up with a wonderful save just before the half to preserve the 1-0 lead.
The second half saw the game change a bit as both teams were able to move ball a bit better. It was Century that struck next, levelling the match in the 62nd minute off of a fine finish from just inside the box.
Anoka-Ramsey pushed on though and slowly started to assert their dominance.
The midfield controlled play and in the 87th minute Hussein Mohamed found a winner after a fantastic ball from Jose Galicia, and the Golden Rams held on for the win.
Ben Harrison was fantastic at the back, winning header after header and truly putting in a captain's performance.
The Golden Rams advance to the NJCAA District Championship game on Saturday, October 31 at 2:00pm at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.