SAINT LEO, Fla. -- In its final regular season matchup against No. 1 Rollins, No. 7 Saint Leo captured an exciting win to take home an upset victory and secure the Sunshine State Conference regular season title. The Lions, led by head coach Keith Fulk, defeated the visiting Tars by a 4-3 score in double overtime on Saturday night from University Soccer Field.
With a packed crowd filling the stadium, the Lions took to the scoreboard first, scoring in the 12th minute to take an early lead. The shot came off the foot of junior Lukas Cramer, whose unassisted goal marked his fifth of the season.
Nearly 15 minutes later, the Tars tied the score at 1-1, thanks to Rollins' senior Rob Cowley and a double assist from Tucker Hume and Tosan Popo. After the first 45 minutes of the match expired, the Lions and Tars headed into halftime, hoping to regroup and reload.
In the 52nd minute, junior Melvin Aguei-Boateng sent a ball into the box that tipped off the foot of Frank Bayabanen towards Maximilian Schulze-Geisthovel, who blasted the ball past a diving Rollins goalkeeper to give the Lions a 2-1 lead.
Seconds later, Cramer took another opportunity to score, sending a laser shot into the top of the Tars' goal to bring the crowd to their feet and take a 3-1 lead.
Rebounding quickly, the Tars' Gareth Partidge sent a Rollins free kick through a group of Saint Leo men and into the back of the Lions' net to cut the deficit to 3-2.
In the 82nd minute, a Rollins penalty kick was sent from the foot of Tosan Popo past a diving Schoenhuber to tie the game at 3-3. With a tie score at the end of regulation, the Tars and Lions were forced into a sudden-death golden-goal overtime period.
Despite a tough back and forth ten minutes, Saint Leo and Rollins were unable to score in the first overtime, forcing a second and final overtime period. With the game and the conference championship on the line, the Lions' senior Edgar Herrera connected with a loose ball in the Rollins box to send the game-winner into the back of the Rollins net for a win. The goal came in the 102nd minute of play.
The win signaled the Lions' clinch of the Sunshine State Conference Championship for the second time in program history.
No. 2 Young Harris 3, Montevallo 2
YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. -- Niall McCabe's goal with 10:21 left in the match was the difference as Young Harris defeated Montevallo for a 3-2 Peach Belt Conference victory on Saturday.
The No. 2-ranked Mountain Lions won their 13th consecutive match as they improved to 15-1-0 overall and to 9-0-0 in the league.
Young Harris jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Ilija Ilic and Khurram Shazad got in the scoring column midway through the first half. McCabe, who leads the Peach Belt with 16 assists, sent a through ball to Ilic, who beat the keeper and knocked the ball into the left corner of the goal at the 22:49 mark for his 17th goal – second most in the PBC. Lewis Hilton played the ball to Shazad 13 minutes later to double the lead for the Mountain Lions. It was Shazad's seventh strike of 2013.
Montevallo got a goal back with just three minutes left before the half as Remy Moulard scored off a Jeffrey Hessenberger cross. The Falcons tied it at two when Steven Didik scored at the 74:32 mark off a Rickey Davey corner kick.
McCabe scored his third match-winner of the season at the 79:39 mark. Declan Traquair played the ball to Ilic, who flicked it to McCabe. The senior from Dublin, Ireland deposited his 10th goal of the season from 10 yards out.
No. 3 Simon Fraser 1, Seattle Pacific 0, OT
BURNABY, B.C. -- Simon Fraser are Great Northwest Athletic Conference Champions for the fourth consecutive year after defeating the second place team in the GNAC and the fifth ranked team in the NCAA Division II's West Region, Seattle Pacific 1-0 in a thrilling double overtime game on Saturday night.
Goalkeeper Brandon Watson stopped all three with all three coming in the first half while his counterpart Cody Lang from Seattle Pacific made three saves in the first half and two in the second.
After regulation, the two teams battled through the first 10 minute overtime period in which neither team recorded a shot on net.
Then, in the second overtime, Jovan Blagojevic got the golden goal for the Clan, netting the game winner to clinch the conference title in the 106th minute of play.
The goal was unassisted, as Blagojevic scored on a scramble in the box.
The Clan have now won the GNAC Championship in each of their four years in the conference.
