EUGENE, Ore. – For the second consecutive meeting, NCU sophomore Sergio Maldonado scored in the opening minutes of overtime against Oregon Tech to lift the Beacons to a Cascade Collegiate Conference victory.
 
Last season it was a 1-0 win after the midfielder scored in the 92nd minute. On Wednesday night at Mike Kelly Field, his goal in the 95th minute lifted Northwest Christian to a 4-3 win.  
 
Wednesday's game was not for the faint of heart as the teams battled through two lead changes and three tie scores. The Beacons held a 25-13 lead in shot attempts, including a 12-6 margin in shots-on-goal and they got goals from four different players as they picked up their first victory since August 21.
 
The Beacons were the first team to find the back of the net, scoring in the 11th minute of the game. A foul in the box awarded a penalty kick to the Beacons. Junior Colin McManamon took the PK, but Oregon Tech keeper James Goheen made a diving save. The rebound, however, went right back to McManamon who buried the score to the other corner of the net.
 
Ten minutes later, Oregon Tech would knot the score at 1-1. In the moments after a corner kick into the box, Nathan Wade attempted to score on a header. His shot bounced off the goalpost to the feet of Benito Torres-Mata who fired home the first equalizer of the contest.
 
The teams took the 1-1 tie into the intermission with plenty of fireworks to follow in the second half. Oregon Tech took their only lead of the game in the 59th minute on a 20-yard blast from straight away by Casey Oltman that froze NCU keeper Bren Bletscher in his tracks.
 
The Owls continued to control the game and held the lead for over 20 minutes, but in the final 11 minutes of the game three more goals would find their way into the nets. NCU tied the game in the 80th minute when a perfectly timed through ball from Noam Glater found a charging Chris Hendler who quickly got ahead of the OIT backline to go one-on-one against Goheen. Hendler danced around the keeper and fired home the empty netter to tie the score, 2-2.
 
The Beacons once again took the lead in the 82nd minute to claim a 3-2 lead. A long throw-in from Ian Hawksford from the left sideline traveled into the box and found a waiting Chase Pearson who headed home the score for NCU's second lead of the night.
 
Oregon Tech did not relent and three minutes later found a way to tie the game once again when Torres-Mata scored his second clean-up goal of the night. A strike from Colton Grytness was knocked away by Bletscher, but found Torres-Mata for the empty-net tap in.
 
The sixth overtime game of the season for NCU ensued and in the 95th minute, Maldonado collected a loose ball in the top of the box, worked his way around a drawn out keeper and fired home the game-winner past two Owl defenders standing on the goal line.
 
The Beacons (2-7-2, 1-5-1 CCC) scored three much needed points in the CCC standings, leapfrogging their way out of last place ahead of Oregon Tech (2-9, 1-6). The win broke a five-game losing streak for the home team.
 
After the game Head Coach Brett Bentley said, "It was a frustrating night because we talked in length with the guys about how you can't let the opponent dictate the way that we play. We knew this game was going to be very difficult and it was going to take a lot of maturity to play the way we want to play. We weren't even close to how we've played in some of our other games, we made some mistakes and made things harder on ourselves and had to go to overtime to get the win. Obviously, we are very happy with the result, but it's one of those bittersweet things because as a coach I know we are so much better than what we just showed."
 
NCU got significant minutes off of the bench from a number of reserve players in the game and had a pair of scores come from those players in Hendler and Pearson. "I think our depth did a great job tonight," said Bentley. "Zeph Hollins, Kyle McMurrich, Ryan Herriage, Chris Hendler and Chase Pearson were all subbed in fairly quickly because our level of play wasn't where it needed to be. I told them they needed to go in and change things and they did a great job impacting the game immediately."
 
Northwest Christian, who has taken four of the last five at home with OIT, will be back in action on Saturday evening, playing host to The College of Idaho at 5 p.m. Oregon Tech will be in Salem on Saturday to face defending champion Corban at 1 p.m.