ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T's men's soccer team fought tooth-and-nail all afternoon with 19^th-ranked Maryville in its Great Lakes Valley Conference opener, but a pair of second half goals proved to be decisive as the Saints came away with a 3-1 victory.

The Miners and Saints played on even terms throughout the first half, but with just over 11 minutes remaining before halftime, a foul in the box led to a penalty kick that was converted by Zulfikar Karimi to put Maryville into the lead.

However, the Miners (1-2, 0-1 GLVC) tied the score in the 54^th minute of play when Jacob Bandy (Bettendorf, IA/Pleasant Valley) got to a long ball played by Tyler Sivadon (Spring, TX/Concordia Lutheran) and headed it past Saint goalkeeper Liam Walraven.

A short time later, the Saints went back into the lead by taking advantage of a Miner turnover on the defensive end.  Braden Johnson scored the go-ahead goal in the 61^st minute on a shot from just inside the top of the box.

Maryville (4-0, 1-0 GLVC) played the final five-plus minutes of the contest down a man after a red card, but added an insurance goal with just 2:01 remaining to sew up the victory.  The Miners had a good chance to get closer after the third Maryville goal, but a shot by Nicholas Sikora (Highland, IL/Highland) went off the crossbar.

The Saints outshot S&T 9-5 in the contest; Nick Posey (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) finished with two saves in the nets for the Miners, who will return to action Friday when they host Southwest Baptist in a 7:30 p.m. game.