MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Sept. 26, 2015) â€" The Milligan College men's soccer team had the lead in the second half and battled to its first overtime period of the season, but eventually fell to Appalachian Athletic Conference foe Tennessee Wesleyan College, 3-2, on Saturday night at Anglin Field.

Milligan was led by goals from Ryan Reilly and Anthony Walker, who also paced the Buffaloes with three and two shots respectively, while Jonathan Colson and Thomas Suits both chipped in with two shots, and Nick Smith made a number of spectacular saves, finishing with seven total.

The loss dropped the Buffs' record to 2-9 overall and to 1-2 in the AAC, while the Bulldogs' rose to 5-3-1 and 2-0-1 with their second straight AAC victory.

The action was evenly distributed in the first half as neither team had a shot for the first 20 minutes until two consecutive shots by TWC in 12 seconds during the 21st minute that required solid saves by Smith.

Six minutes later and after two more shots in just over a minutes time for TWC, Milligan began to fire back and put the pressure on the Bulldogs' defense.

The Buff's first shot of the night came at the 14:11 mark in the first half as Tatenda Tanyanyiwa took a breakaway chance to the near side of the goal and put up a shot that required saving by the Bulldog keeper Daniel O'Hare.

Less than two minutes later, Milligan had another near score as Thomas Suits launched a free kick that nearly went over the outstretched hands of O'Hare, who managed to get a finger on it to tip it over the crossbar.

Less than three minutes after that chance, Milligan continued to force the issue when Walker broke away on the outside past his defender and fired a shot to the short post where O'Hare could do nothing put stick out his foot to deflect the ball away.

The two teams went into the break scoreless and with TWC holding a 5-4 lead on shots, but Milligan leading 4-3 on shots on goal.

The second half was a nail-biter, featuring four total goals, 12 shots by the Bulldogs, and seven from the Buffs.

Coming out of the locker room, the Buffs seized early control in the half as Kaseke ran down a ball in the corner and charged the TWC box, forcing a foul and setting up a free kick from the end line for Reilly, who buried the shot in the far side of the net (49th minute) for his second goal of the season.

A little over five minutes after Reilly's goal, the Bulldogs had two shots to tie it in less than 15 seconds, the first of which Smith made an outstanding save on as the ball that got loose in the Milligan box, causing him to react quickly to the shot and stretch out toward the sky to stop it.

About two and a half minutes later, Milligan nearly went up 2-0 as Colson shot a ball that nearly went over the goal line but was cleared out of harm's way by the Bulldog defense.

After that, momentum seemed to sway toward TWC as they forced three corner kick opportunities, leading to the tying goal in the 62nd minute after a strike by Laurence Hutchinson on the far side of the goal after a corner kick by Ben Wilks as the ball never touched the ground.

Walker then took the momentum back for the Buffs in the 68th minute with a rocket from the far corner of the box, for his first goal of the season, after a throw-in was deflected in front of the goal, making the score 2-1 in favor of Milligan.

However, the Buffs could not hold off the Bulldogs' attack as in the 77th minute, the ball deflected off of Jordan Jacob and into the goal after another TWC corner kick, its ninth of the half.

In the overtime period, the Bulldogs set the tone with four shots in the first four minutes and 15 seconds, while the Buffs did not get off a shot in the extra frame. In the end, a foul by the Buffs in their own box set up the game winner, a penalty kick from Nduka Kemjika, who beat Smith to the upper left 90.

The Buffs return to action next week with two more home AAC matches. Milligan will welcome the Bears of Truett-McConnell College on Wednesday, Sept. 30, followed by the Skyhawks of Point University on Saturday, Oct. 3.