University of St. Thomas Athletics
4-1-0, 0-1MIAC
Saint John's
4-1-1, 1-0MIAC
Men's soccer suffers first loss in OT heartbreaker
9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
ST. PAUL – After bolting out to a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes, the St. Thomas men's soccer team could not hold its lead, suffering a 2-1 overtime loss to Saint John's University on Wednesday afternoon at South Field.
The Johnnies came back to send the game to overtime with just over 10 minutes left. They would eventually score the game-winner in the final minute of the first overtime.
It was the first loss of the season for the Tommies, who fall to 4-1-0 overall and open MIAC play 0-1-0. Saint John's improves to 4-1-1 (1-0-0 MIAC).
UST wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. In just the second minute of play, the Tommies opened up a 1-0 lead. Sophoomore Shae Bottum started the play, beating a Johnnie defender up the left side and sending a cross in front that was deflected by senior Miles Stockman-Willis.
The deflection found its way to sophomore Pierce Erickson, who finished with his left foot up over the top of Johnnie goalkeeper Kevin Lebahn to put the Tommies in front.
St. Thomas continued to control play through the first 20 minutes of the first half until Saint John's began to settle in. The time of possession swayed a bit, but the Johnnies could not take advantage despite holding a 4-3 shot advantage in the opening frame.
The two teams went back and forth through the early minutes of what would turn out to be an eventful second half. Although the Tommies racked up six shots in the second half, four of which were on goal, the Johnnies needed just one to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The goal came off a corner kick in the 80th minute. Alex Schnobrich sent the corner in to the box, which found its way through traffic in front of the net to Rocky Harmon. Harmon let a shot rip and Paul Wageman deflected it into the back of the net to tie the game.
Although UST tallied three more scoring chances in the final minutes, there was no goal to be found. The Tommies outshot the Johnnies 6-1 in the second 45 minutes to total an advantage of 9-5 in regulation.
However, St. Thomas would not tally a shot in the overtime period. Robert Deetz scored the game-winning goal with less than a minute remaining in the extra frame. Deetz fired from outside the top of the box, which deflected off the hands of Tommie goalkeeper Grant Larson and over the goal line to end the game with the final score of 2-1.
St. Thomas will be back in action on Sunday when it hosts St. Scholastica in a non-conference bout. That game is set for a 2:00 pm kickoff.
Team Stats
Pierce Erickson (4)
Assisted By: Miles StockmanWillis , Shae Bottum
Beat charging goalie from left side
1:52
Paul Wageman (3)
Assisted By: Rocky Harmon
Scramble after corner kick
79:06
Robert Deetz (2)
Shot from just outside the top of the bo
99:10
