Cards season comes to end; ranked 18th in NJCAA polls

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — The third-seeded Cardinals run in the Region 18 Championships was halted by the second-seeded Badgers in a semifinal match at Salt Lake Community College. 

Max Mayer scored on an assist from Ryan Henry in the 54th minute for Snow (12-3-2), which entered the match ranked 17th in this week's NJCAA poll. 

"It was a tough break," said second-year NIC coach Brad Williams said. "We missed some opportunities to shoot and didn't. We had some guys we thought would show up and they didn't. You've got to be brave to win games, and it felt at times, we weren't brave enough to take the shot." 

NIC (13-4-3) was 18th in the poll this week. 

Snow will face top-seeded Salt Lake (16-0-1), a 4-0 winner over fourth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (7-8-3) on Saturday in the championship match. The winner will host the winner of this Saturday's match between Yavapai and Arizona Western next Saturday to determine the automatic berth to the NJCAA Tournament starting Nov. 17 at Wichita, Kan. 

Seedings for the NJCAA Tournament will be announced on Nov. 12, with the top 12 teams in the nation advancing. 

"For us, it's a very outside chance," Williams said. "I think it will be very difficult to get an at-large. If we'd been here two or three years, maybe. But they're probably not going to accept us as one of the top teams in the country." 

First half — none. Second half — 1, Snow, Max Mayer (Ryan Henry), 54:14.  

Shots on goal — NIC 3, Snow 3. 

Saves — NIC, David Ochoa 1, Kael McGowan 1; Snow, Mathias Christensen 3. 

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