PINEVILLE, La. -- Seventh-ranked Texas-Dallas gave up a tie-breaking goal with just 18 seconds left in regulation and lost at Louisiana College 3-2 on Thursday night. For the Wildcats, the win is the first in school history against a nationally ranked opponent.
The Wildcats' Pedro Silva punched in a shot in the game's final seconds to break a 2-2 tie and move the Wildcats (9-7-0 overall, 6-2-0 ASC) ahead of UT-Dallas (11-1-3, 5-1-2 ASC) in the American Southwest Conference standings.
The Comets are technically tied with Louisiana College and idle Hardin-Simmons atop the league standings with a .750 winning percentage, but trail in the tie-breaker to the Wildcats. Mississippi College, which actually tops the ASC standings with a 5-0-2 mark, is not eligible to host the conference tournament due to its transition to Division II.
Playing on unfamiliar artificial turf at Louisiana College's home football stadium, the seventh-ranked Comets led the match with an early second-half goal from Omar Jaroun, but gave up both the game-tying and winning goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation. A chance to stretch their undefeated streak to 15 games to start the season evaporated when Silva got the game-winner with only seconds on the clock.
LC struck first in the contest with a first-half goal from Zach White on a header off a free kick in the 29th minute. But the Comets were able to answer just five minutes later when Lucas Teese converted a header off a Sam Konstanty corner kick to tie the game 1-1 at the break.
In the 64th minute, UTD's Casey Cooper was fouled just outside the LC box and a Travis White free kick caromed around in front of the net before Jaroun was able to give the Comets their first lead with a scoring shot out of the crowd.
LC then came up with the game-tying goal with a little more than six minutes left in regulation with a rocket shot to the upper corner of the net on a feed from Rodrigo Nieves.
The Wildcats outshot the Comets 18-13, putting eight shots on goal. Comet goalkeeper Steven Nicknish made five saves. UTD put only two other shots on net.
Louisiana College Athletics contributed to this report.
