Rock Valley College Men's Soccer regular season comes to an end as they go 9-2-6. The Golden Eagles saw a finish to their regular season with just two losses and a home record of 6-0-1. The Golden Eagles will be the 3-seed in Region 4's Region Tournament.
Inside of Region 4 action, the Golden Eagles finished with the 3-seed and a first-round bye. "The 3-seed is a testament of the guys each day at practice this fall. They've earned it. I think it's a massive accomplishment as a program to be one of the top four teams in the country's largest region, that's a massive thing, but it's regular season footnote. The post season is an entirely separate animal. The first-round bye gives us the opportunity to rest up a bit, and really iron out some of our inconsistencies as a squad," said Head Coach Tim Romanello.
The men will host the winner of 6-seed Morton and 11-seed Harper in the Region 4 Quarterfinals on Sunday, November 3rd at 12:00 pm. Head coach Romanello will rely on a trio of consistent stars on Sunday, Jorge Leon, who leads the team in points with 25 (9 goals and 7 assists), Julio Davila, who leads the team in goals scored with 10 (23 points, 10 goals and 3 assists) and goalkeeper Alyas Fritz, who has 6 shutouts in 1125 minutes of play and 6 of the 9 wins on the season.
Rock Valley is still sitting on 9 victories. Their elusive 10th would make it four straight 10-win seasons, the only such seasons in their history. Rock Valley earned their 100th program victory in a 4-1 win in Moline, Illinois over Black Hawk College. The Golden Eagles are 100-67-18 overall in 11 seasons, 59-28-11 since Romanello's appointment, and have been to the National Tournament twice (2021 and 2023). With a win in Sunday's Quarterfinal, Rock Valley moves one step closer to a third national tournament appearance. "The longer I do this [coaching] thing, the previous year just stokes the fire. And that has just carried on over to the guys. It's that daily approach of having that carrot dangle in front of you. The daily challenge then is staying hungry and healthy enough to eat," stated Romanello.
