The RDC Kings turned to Pedro Humberto Mourao Neto when they needed a lift.
Neto, the second-year midfielder from Brazil converted twice in a two-minute span in the second half Sunday against the Ambrose University Lions and powered the Kings to a 3-0 shutout victory.
It was the Kings fourth straight win in Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference play. They dominated the first half against the Lions but had nothing to show for it until the 63rd minute.
“Give Ambrose credit, they worked really hard. I would have liked that game to have been over in the first half. We had some great opportunities that we just didn’t finish. From guys who 99 per cent of the time finish in those positions,” said Kings coach Wade Groenewegen.
“We could have been up three or four in the first half, but we weren’t. When you leave a team in it– they fight and they stay hungry, that’s what Ambrose did. Not our prettiest win, but once they started coming, they did come.”
A controversial offside after the Kings scored appeared to light a fire under the home side.
With the game still scoreless early in the second half, Damian Marah looked to have put the Kings ahead with a header past Lions keeper Matthew Stacey. The sideline official called the play offside and the goal did not count.
From there, RDC turned it up a notched and scored three times in 14 minutes to close the game out.
Nathan Swartz converted a great ball from Matthew Elphick, before Pedro Humberto Mourao Neto took over.
The second-year midfielder scored on in the 75th minute, before converting his second of the game in the 77th to put the match away.
“We call it urgency,” Groenewegen said.
“You have to all of a sudden play like you don’t have 90 minutes left, and that’s kind of a problem when there’s only 30 minutes left and you’re playing like there’s 90. That probably did light a little bit of a fire, but we have to have that urgency in the first 1o minutes.”
Jacob Hamilton picked up the shutout for the Kings and Kristopher Grobmeier was player of the game. Stacey was POG for the Lions.
RDC also won 6-1 Saturday over the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings.
With the weekend wins and four games to go for the Kings, their 6-1-1 record has RDC sitting in good position for the home stretch.
Still, four tough games remain for RDC and Groenewegen said the expectations for his group are clear in the final four games. RDC sits tied for first in the ACAC south division with the Lethbridge College Kodiaks at 19 points.
“Just being in the moment. We had a couple of moments (Sunday that we really should have taken advantage of that we didn’t,” said Groenewegen.
“That’s the thing a lot of people in North America don’t understand, you build the whole game building for the moment. We still have to turn a little bit of a corner to make sure we’re really on when those moments occur.”
The Kings play next Sunday on the road against the Olds College Broncos and finish the road portion of their schedule at SAIT on Oct. 16.
They will finish the season with a pair of home games, the first on Oct. 19 against the Lethbridge College Kodiaks before ending the regular season on Oct. 20 against the Medicine Hat College Rattlers.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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