ST. LOUIS – Survive and advance. That was the name of the game with the American Midwest Conference (AMC) postseason coming into fruition. The road to redemption began Saturday under the lights at Spartan Field for Missouri Baptist men's soccer.
 
No. 3 seed MBU posted a clean sheet victory against No. 6 seed William Woods (WWU), 3-0, in the AMC Quarterfinals. In a rematch from a week prior, the Spartans avenged the 2-0 loss they suffered in Fulton with an convincing and complete win from start to finish.
 
"I'm happy to come out with a win and the most important thing is we're going to be playing Tuesday," said Missouri Baptist head men's soccer coach Jacob Alvernia after the match. "That's all that matters. There's no place on Earth we'd rather be than Columbia [College] on Tuesday."
 
Advancing to the AMC Semifinals, the Spartans will head to No. 2 seed and 16th-ranked Columbia on Tuesday, Nov. 8. It will be the second trip down I-70 to R. Marvin Owens Field. Back on Oct. 15, the two rivals went toe-to-toe, with CC scoring the game's only goal on a penalty kick to squeak by a determined Spartans.
 
MBU will have a chance to avenge all three losses from the conference season in the postseason should the Spartans beat CC and chalk were to prevail on the other side of the bracket between No. 1 seed Williams Baptist and No. 4 seed Harris-Stowe State. The prospect of righting the season's wrongs is something the players are relishing.
 
"We are going for revenge and that's it" forward Marko Dordevic stated following the game. "Just one goal, one penalty [separated us], so we are going for revenge."
 
On Saturday, freshly announced AMC Freshman of the Year Dordevic opened up the scoring with the first goal in the seventh minute. After finding a bit of space, senior Louie Perez worked the ball up to Dordevic in the box who finished it off with a perfect shot low at the near post.
 
MoBap upped its lead to 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining in the first half when WWU's Guillermo Fernandez was dealt a foul and yellow card in the box. Dordevic punched in his second of the game and twelfth of the year with the PK strike to regain the team lead in goals on the campaign.
 
MBU would soundly defend the rest of the way, allowing only a couple clear opportunities to the Owls the whole second half that either the defense recovered on or junior Callum McKinlay was able to save.
 
Following a red card for WWU and playing a man down in the final minutes, WWU tried throwing everything forward in a last ditch effort to cut into the MBU lead, Joe Ruane delivered the dagger. With a pass upfield from senior Giuseppe Verrecchia into the wide open midfield and the Owls goalkeeper Iker Gonzalez up field in no man's land, Ruane lofted a shot from 40 yards out over the retreating Gonzalez and into an open WWU net.
 
"We knew it coming into this that we had to be more technical, better in the decision zone and defend well. The effort and the energy were fantastic today. I told them at half, the energy is fantastic but now we need to keep it up 2-nil. It's one of the toughest leads to hold because it's easy to relax as a team."