WILDER, Ky. – A year ago, Missouri S&T's men's soccer team lost a tough opening round game in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament in the final minutes of the contest.

 

The Miners returned to the scene Sunday – and unfortunately, they saw their season end in heartbreaking fashion again at NKU as the Norse scored in the final minute to end S&T's season with a 3-2 win in the first round of the 2009 GLVC Tournament.

 

S&T scored twice in the second half to take the lead in the contest over the second-seeded Norse, but NKU tied the game on a penalty kick and then won the game on Ryan Grothaus' goal with just 33 seconds to play.

 

Northern Kentucky got the only goal in the opening half, which came at the 38:12 mark when Steven Beattie headed in a cross from Grothaus for his 19^th goal of the season. The Norse outshot the Miners 7-1 over the first 45 minutes of play.

 

However, the Miners started creating more opportunities in the second half and got on the scoreboard just over 11 minutes into the second half when Sam Shaffer (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) posted an unassisted goal.

 

S&T grabbed the lead 16 minutes later on Zack Hay (Springfield, Mo./Kickapoo)'s second goal of the season, as he scored off assists from Mario Calderon (Mexico City, Mexico/ITESM) and Nicolas Solano.

 

With just under 10 minutes remaining in regulation time, Northern Kentucky was awarded a penalty kick when it was ruled that S&T goalkeeper Pat McNamee (Fenton, Mo./Vianney ) pushed an NKU player in front of the Miner goal. Braden Bishop converted the penalty kick to knot the score at two.

 

The Norse won the game at the 89:27 mark when Grothaus scored off assists from Bishop and Paul Andrews, ending S&T's season at 7-7-1. 

NKU outshot the Miners 16-9 on the afternoon.  Both goalkeepers -- S&T's McNamee and NKU's Michael Lavric -- were credited with one save apiece.

The Miners finished at 7-5-1 in the GLVC.