HARDEEVILLE, S.C.—In a classic battle between two ranked teams, Southeastern came up on the short end of a 3-2 loss to NAIA Coaches' No. 1 Rio Grande in overtime.
The Fire trailed the Red Storm 2-1 with 30 seconds to play when they created a scoring opportunity in the box. An SEU player was denied an obvious scoring opportunity, yielding a penalty kick for senior captain
Pedro Ivo Dias. Ivo Dias dialed the ball into the back of the net, beating the keeper to his left to tie the game and force overtime.
The defending national champions worked quickly to create a goal, sneaking a ball just inside the far post 100 seconds into the extra session.
"Today, I'm really proud of our team," said coach
Clay Roberts. "I think we were up to the challenge, it was a great game and we went to overtime with the No. 1 team in the country and we were in the game the entire time."
Rio Grande (5-0) took a 1-0 lead in the 16
th minute of play, taking advantage of a defensive breakdown. The Fire (2-2) tied the game 10 minutes later on a corner kick that was headed in by
Gerritson Craane from Ivo Dias.
Pa Delgado Rodriguez tallied his second goal of the game in the 71
st minute to take a 2-1 lead for Rio Grande, drawing keeper
Jorge Navarrete out of the goal on the left wing.
Navarrete finished the day with seven saves.
"This is something to build off of and take what we can from it," said Roberts. "We have a very tough front-loaded schedule and we have two losses to two Top 15 teams, but we need to find ways to win those games."
The Fire will be on the road once again next weekend, taking on William Carey Thursday.
