WILDER, Ky. -- Missouri S&T battled all day with ninth-ranked Northern Kentucky in the opening round game in the GLVC Tournament, but it was the conference's scoring leader that ended up deciding the game before it could get to overtime.

Steven Beattie scored with 3:45 left in regulation time Sunday to give the Norse a 1-0 victory over the Miners in the tournament's opening round contest, ending the Miner season after a hard-fought effort.

The teams were scoreless at halftime with the Norse recording seven shots to the Miners' one in the first 45 minutes. S&T was able to get some offense generated in the second half, with Garrett Stevens (Richland, Wash./Richland) being turned away twice on good scoring chances.

Stevens had one opportunity on a corner kick that was stopped by the NKU defense four minutes into the half, then had a shot stopped with just over 10 minutes left that led to a Miner corner kick.

The Norse, who had a good scoring chance stopped when Eric Ashworth had a shot hit off the crossbar midway through the second half, finally broke the scoreless tie when Beattie tallied his 18th goal of the year on a shot from about six yards away.

NKU (14-1-2), who will face Bellarmine in the semifinals, finished the game by outshooting the Miners 15-4 and had eight corner kick attempts to S&T's five. Miner goalkeeper Pat McNamee (Fenton, Mo./Vianney ), named earlier in the week as the GLVC's "Freshman of the Year", finished with nine saves in the contest.

Missouri S&T finished the 2008 season with a record of 6-9-4 and was 4-4-4 in the GLVC.