MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Nov. 3, 2015) â€" Despite battling back from down a goal to force two overtime periods and a penalty shootout, the Milligan College men's soccer team came up short in the end, dropping a 4-2 decision in PK's after a 2-2 draw against Bluefield College on a warm and gorgeous Tuesday evening at Anglin Field.
 
The penalty session went four and a half rounds, with both teams scoring on the first, missing the second and converting on the third shot. Bluefield (5-11-1, 1-8-0 AAC) then made its next shot while Milligan (4-12-2, 3-5-1 AAC) missed. The Rams then went on to score on their fifth and final chance to move onto the next round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament.
 
After Bluefield opened the match with the first goal less than nine minutes into the match, Jonathan Colson got Milligan on the board with a strike around his defender to the near corner of the goal in the 38th minute.
                    
Nathan Sloan then put the Buffs up 2-1 less than eight minutes into the second half when he gathered a loose ball just outside the box off a free kick from Thomas Suits and fired the ball into the far side of the net.
 
However, just over six minutes later, Bluefield found the equalizer as Scott Murry got free on the near side and headed the ball in over the charging Nick Smith.
 
Both teams continued to have opportunities to take back the lead as with under 30 minutes to go, Tapiwa Kaseke had a header chance right at the near post that went just wide. Less than a minute later, Bluefield's Jean-Emmanuel Ahouman, who scored the first goal of the match, got free in the box and had an opportunity with a wide open goal, but his shot went high, just barely missing the crossbar.
 
With under nine and a half minutes to play, Kaseke charged the Bluefield box and corralled the ball on a feed by Jesse Ramoya, but had it broken up by the collapsing Bluefield defense.
 
Next, at the three-minute mark, Milligan withstood a dangerous cross by Bluefield that saw Smith leap out to stop a ball in front of a slashing Ram attacker, resulting in the final threat from either team in regulation.
 
Milligan tried to take Bluefield by surprise to start the first overtime as the Buffs took the opening ball and Anthony Walker charged the box, dribbling past a number of Rams' defenders before flipping it to Zana Ali, who had it knocked away.
 
At the 6:39 mark in the first overtime, a laser by Ahouman deflected off the hands of a leaping Smith, and the ensuing corner kick resulted in a header by Seon Thomas that just missed high.
 
With 5:21 to go in the second overtime period, a shot by Nikolai Vilsboll required a sprawling save by Smith with the ball barely clinging to his fingertips. Neither team would fire a shot for the remainder of the match until penalty kicks.
 
Playing in their final matches in Buff uniforms, Colson scored Kaseke, both seniors, fired three and two shots respectively. Tayzere Arnott and Walker were also responsible for two shots apiece.