Box Score

SAN DIEGO - It took all of regulation and nearly two full overtimes, but Tyler Allen's game-winning free kick in the 106th minute gave the PLNU men's soccer team a 2-1 home victory over Montana State Billings.

With the win, the Sea Lions improved to 2-2, while the Yellowjackets dropped to 0-3-1.

The game-winner was Allen's first career goal as a Sea Lions, and gave PLNU its first pair of back-to-back victories since 2011.

"It felt amazing," said Allen, a freshman, "because I usually don't score that much. On this free kick I was just thinking, 'The goalie was not set.' He was setting up his wall and then [Daniel] ten Bosch just told me to hit it.

"I struck it perfectly, and it felt amazing to score a goal," Allen concluded.

Point Loma head coach was also very impressed with the goal from Allen but even more by his team's ability to listen and capitalize on the opportunity they had in the second overtime.

"It was funny because we had just talked about the rules of free kicks and we said not to ask for 10 yards because sometimes the keeper will leave the goal open, and that is what he did today," said PLNU head coach Phil Wolf.

Prior to the decisive goal, the teams played back and forth in an extremely physical contest that saw four yellow cards and 23 fouls between the two sides. PLNU outshot the Yellowjackets 14-11, with nine of those attempts on goal.

Five of those shots came from sophomore Daniel ten Bosch, who scored his second goal in as many games in the 36th minute. Freshman Ricardo Martinez lofted a cross to forward Jonathan Tiggs, who played the ball neatly to an unmarked ten Bosch on the far post for the first goal of the game.

The score remained 1-0 for the rest of the first half. In the 63rd minute, MSU Billings struck back. Sam Butterworth fired a long shot that deflected off a Sea Lion defender and past the outstretched arms of PLNU keeper Carter Phillips to tie the game.

Phillips made a number of great plays for the Sea Lions, and finished with three saves.

Neither PLNU nor MSU Billings could convert any chances for the rest of regulation and the entire first overtime. But with just under five minutes to play in the second overtime, Allen put the game away for good with his left-footed blast from 24 yards out.

"I thought we were good at moments in this game," said Wolf. "There were some moments we weren't great but overall, we were the better team, and I think we deserved full points."

The Sea Lions will take their momentum up to the Bay Area this week, when they open up PacWest Conference play against Dominican University Thursday. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

"We're just going to go forward from here," said Allen. "We're going to look to win our next game. We're going to go one game at a time."