SFCC men’s soccer pulls away in Region 16 quarterfinal

Published 11:57 pm Saturday, October 24, 2026

For a brief stretch early in the second half, State Fair Community College men’s soccer saw its two-goal lead begin to slip.

Metropolitan Community College pulled within one before the Roadrunners immediately snapped back into form, scoring twice across the next eight minutes to secure a 4-1 win in the Region 16 Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Roadrunner Athletic Complex.

“It’s been happening to us that we relax too much when we don’t have to, and that’s what happened,” acting SFCC head coach Jesus Gonzalez said. “They got the score, and the guys said, ‘OK, we need to wake up a little bit in the next 10 minutes,’ and they go all for it and get the scores. That was great.”

The No. 3-seeded Roadrunners (9-5-1, 4-2 Region 16) established control early, carrying a 2-0 advantage into halftime. Freshman Raheem Raeburn put SFCC on the board in the 20th minute by capitalizing on a rebound, while freshman Vijay Valcin doubled the lead in the 31st minute off a corner kick.

No. 6-seeded Metropolitan (4-11-4, 0-5-1 Region 16) found the back of the net seven minutes into the second half, cutting its deficit to 2-1 with 38 minutes left to play.

Raeburn answered just 17 seconds later to push the Roadrunners’ lead back up to two goals at 3-1.

The Wolves threatened to pull back within one after drawing a penalty kick in the 58th minute, but SFCC freshman goalkeeper Victor Soares came up with the save.

“I was thinking, ‘This is a very, very important game, so I need to save this penalty,’” Soares said. “I thank God and my whole team for practicing penalties every day.”

About two and a half minutes later, sophomore Seth Jones extended State Fair’s lead to 4-1 with a goal off an assist from Valcin.

“It was a brilliant play from Vijay,” Jones said. “There were two well-played runs. I think it was me and one of the other midfielders — I can’t remember who — but it was a great ball and a decent finish.”

State Fair continued to dictate the pace down the stretch, generating several late opportunities to add to its lead, but neither side found the net again over the last 30 minutes.

“For the amount of chances we had, I’m not happy [with the offensive production], but who’s going to complain about four goals,” Gonzalez said. “I’m happy with four goals, but I think we can do more with the chances we create.”

Soares finished the game with seven saves.

With the quarterfinal win, the Roadrunners advance to the Region 16 Tournament semifinals, where they will face No. 2-seeded St. Charles Community College on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Cottleville.

SFCC lost to St. Charles 4-0 in its regular-season meeting on Sept. 26.

“We lost 4-0, and now we’re going there to look for revenge,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going to try and play our best game, and we know if we don’t win, we don’t play anymore. So, that’s going to be fuel for the kids in that match.”

No. 4-seeded East Central College beat No. 5 St. Louis Community College 4-2 in the other Region 16 quarterfinal game Saturday. East Central will face top-seeded Mineral Area on Tuesday.

Sports editor Jack Denebeim can be reached at 660-530-0142.