Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — The Cardiac Crusaders are making new coach Joel DeLass prematurely gray.

But Northwest Nazarene's head man will take the few gray hairs if they come with wins, no matter how dramatic, as his Crusaders played into overtime for the sixth straight game, and for the third straight time scored the victory in the extra session.

Alex Mitrovic booted home a penalty-kick winner, giving NNU a 1-0 win in Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer over visiting Seattle Pacific with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left in the second overtime at Finkbeiner Park on the NNU campus.

"There's definitely an energy in overtime in that huddle before we start," Coach DeLass said after his team scored its fourth win during its current six-game unbeaten overtime streak.

Of course, the Crusaders coach and the entire team wouldn't mind finishing off wins in regulation.

But …
 

"At the end of the day a results, a result," said DeLass, whose team next hosts Concordia on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Finkbeiner Park.

The Crusaders got their result at the end of a long day that saw both teams playing a man down.

NNU lost a player to a second yellow card with 5:31 left in regulation, then the Falcons saw a player ejected on a red card with 2:43 gone in the extra session.

That leveled the playing field and improved the chances for the Crusaders (7-3-3 overall, 4-1-2 GNAC), who pushed the attack and finally converted with 2:45 left in the second OT.

Following a corner kick by Linus Mansson, a Falcon defender blocked the ball in the goal box with his hand, earning the Cardiac Crusaders an instant chance to win the game with a penalty kick.

Mitrovic made no mistake, blasting a low shot into the right side of the goal and setting off a wild NNU celebration, as the goal not only gave the Crusaders a third straight overtime win, but ended a scoreless stretch of 237 minutes, 59 seconds between the two teams.

"They battled all the way through," DeLass said of his team's victorious effort. "We had a number of chances in regulation and we almost paid for it by going to overtime, especially when we were down a man.

"When it evened up to 10-v-10 I think, again, we were the better side, and thankfully we had the opportunity to put it away and we did at the end."

Ryan Foo helped ensure the victory by throwing a second straight shutout at SPU (4-4-5, 2-2-4), making nine saves in goal and getting some help from Steven Garcia early in the second half.

With Foo out challenging Falcons forward Gabe Kellum, Garcia came up big as Kellum got behind NNU's goalie and sent a shot towards an open net that Garcia cleared off the goal-line, preserving the scoreless tie.