QUINCY, Ill. – Entering Sunday's game, Missouri S&T's men's soccer team had not won a game at Quincy since 2004 and had not defeated the Hawks on the road in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game since joining the league in 2005. At halftime, it appeared that the Miners might have to wait a little longer for that streak-breaking victory when they trailed 2-0 at the intermission.
But the Miners flipped the script in the second half, storming back with four goals and overcoming two deficits in the process, capped by
Luan Barbosa's (Curitiba, Brazil/Colegio SESI) goal in the 86
th minute for a 4-3 win in the GLVC opener for both teams.
Barbosa scored the game-winner into the upper right corner of the net on a long drive off a pass from
Sigurd Semlitsch (Oslo, Norway/Stabekk Videregaaende Skole) – who scored the tying goal five minutes earlier – to give the Miners (2-1, 1-0 GLVC) a victory in their conference opener for the first time since 2014.
The Hawks (2-2, 0-1 GLVC) outshot the Miners 9-7 in the first half and got goals from Aubrey Reis and Cole Hayes to take their 2-0 advantage through the first 45 minutes of play. But the Miners were able to cut the lead in half in the 53
rd minute when
Jacob Bandy (Bettendorf, IA/Pleasant Valley) scored an unassisted goal, then knotted the score 10 minutes later when
Dario Rossell (Madrid, Spain/IES Lazaro Cardenas) hit a shot from just inside the top of the box past Quincy goalkeeper Michele Barletta.
Quincy wasted little time in regaining the lead when Anthony Binaei beat
Michael Sallee (Springfield, MO/Catholic) to his right in the 65
th minute, but the Miners kept the pressure on the Hawks and evened the contest again when Semlitsch put a shot just inside the left post to make it 3-3 with under 10 minutes remaining.
Given a free kick opportunity following a Hawk foul, Barbosa got the ball from Semlitsch and hammered a shot from well beyond the box that got past Barlotta for the game-winner.
S&T had a two-shot advantage in the second half and finished even with the Hawks at 17 shots apiece in the game. Sallee made seven saves in goal for the Miners, who will play Friday at William Jewell before opening its home schedule a week from Sunday against Truman State.