Mars Hill falls in double overtime thriller

NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Mars Hill men's soccer team dropped a crucial double-overtime contest against Newberry, 3-2, on the road Saturday afternoon. Jordan Lennon and Stian Sanner scored the Lions' markers.

Less than seven minutes into the double-overtime frame, leading Wolves' goal scorer Till Neumann secured the victory for Newberry with his 11th goal of the season. The freshman from Calden, Germany lined his shot up from the top left corner of the box and blew it by Lions' goalkeeper Ben Lucas.

The Wolves opened up the scoring just 2:20 into the contest. Tobias Henriksen shot the ball past Lucas from the right side to put Newberry up 1-0 early on. The Lions would answer back with Lennon's penalty kick goal in the 34' minute. It was Lennon's fourth of the year.

In the 55' minute, Sanner was awarded a penalty kick and put the Lions up 2-1 with his fourth of the season. The shot beat Newberry goalkeeper Brad Dixon to his left-hand side.

With just over seven minutes to play in the contest, Newberry tied the game. Fabrizio Bucco burst down the middle of the field and ripped a shot past Lucas to eventually force an overtime frame.

The Lions suffer their first conference loss since October 4 when they were downed 2-0 by Lenoir-Rhyne. They are tied for third place in the SAC with Lenoir-Rhyne with a record of 5-6-2 (4-3-2 SAC). Newberry pulls within four points of the Lions as they improve to 4-7-3 (3-5-1 SAC).

Mars Hill will wrap up their regular season at home with a contest against Anderson on Saturday, October 28. The match is slated for a 3:30 p.m. start time.