WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Freshman Jacob Pease's (Lincoln, England) game-winner in double-overtime gave the Bellevue University men's soccer team a thrilling 3-2 victory at Northwood University on Thursday afternoon. The win, their third in a row, moves Bellevue to 6-1-1 on the season while Northwood drops to 2-2-0 with the loss.
In the second overtime period sophomore David Goolsby (Bellevue, Neb.) sprayed a pass – right to left – to reigning MCAC Offensive Player of the Week, freshman Rob Smith (Lincoln, England) who delivered the ball to the feet of Pease. Pease calmly delivered a shot to the left-handed side of the keeper from 16 yards out for the game-winner.
BU is now 2-0-1 in games that have gone to overtime this year as all three occurrences have seen a second overtime period. The Bruins are off to their best start since the 2005 season when they won 10 of their first 11 contests on the way to a 16-3-2 final record.
After the Bruins committed a foul to set-up a free kick, Callum Denham hit a strike toward the middle of the box. Alan McCann's directional header went to Theo Stamatopoulos and he finished with a shot into the left corner of the net to give the Seahawks a 1-0 advantage with 30:17 left in the first half.
The Bruins responded quickly after pushing the ball into the Seahawks zone. Senior Manuel Lira (Guadalajara, Mexico) sent a crossing pass to Smith, who struck a one-timer into the back of the net with 27:46 remaining in the first half.
The Seahawks nearly took the lead just under the 18-minute mark as Mark Hanlon fired a free kick that hit the top crossbar of the net and bounced out to the left of the goalpost. Stamatopoulos hit the right outside post on a shot attempt at the 9-minute mark.
In the second half, the Bruins took the lead after a costly foul committed by the Seahawks in the penalty area. Junior Tobias Maertzke (Hamburg, Germany) converted the penalty kick for a goal to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead with 39:20 left.
The Seahawks missed an opportunity after a quality scoring chance approaching the 16-minute mark of the second half. Shoval Failer took a crossing pass and hit the right post before Stamatopoulos fired a shot that sailed high and wide past the net.
Jesse Alves had another scoring chance after receiving a crossing pass and was denied on a diving save with less than 10 minutes left.
The Seahawks were able to capitalize late in the second half to find the equalizer. Hanlon made a move on the defender and fired a shot into the left corner of the net with 7:52 remaining to make it 2-2.
Bellevue will next play on Saturday, Sept. 20, once again in West Palm Beach, against Florida Memorial University at 1:00 p.m.
