Men's Soccer | 10/14/2017 10:04:00 PM

Box Score

FAIRFAX, Va. – After battling back twice to tie the game in the second half, the George Mason men's soccer team appeared to be heading to overtime.

But an unfortunate play led to a strange goal for Saint Louis off a deflected clear with 10 seconds left in regulation as the Patriots suffered a 3-2 loss on Saturday night at George Mason Stadium. Mason dropped their third straight game despite junior Graydon Hester coming off the bench to score his first two goals of the season.

"Sometimes the game is cruel and it certainly was tonight," head coach Greg Andrulis said. "Feels like that after the guys showed so much character, fought back twice with some quality goals. But you can't give up three goals at home and expect a good result. Defensively, again, we were leaking too many chances for the other team. On the positive side, we got back on and got a couple good goals, got a good performance from Graydon. He's healthy, which we haven't had most of the season from him – and unlucky because he started (the season) off so strong. But the defensive part of it is has been our Achilles heel unfortunately."

With the game tied, Mason (5-5-2, 0-3-1 Atlantic 10) appeared to have thwarted a last-minute chance by Saint Louis.

As time ticked away, the ball rolled near the top left corner of the box. A Patriots defender attempted to clear the ball but the Billikens' Leo Novaes jumped up and blocked the kick. The ball soared more than 18 yards over Mason goalkeeper Corey Chambers, who had come to the top of the box, and into an empty net in the bottom right corner.

"One of those guys has to take ownership of it," Andrulis said. "We turned a simple play into a complex situation. Give their guy (Novaes) a little credit for putting the pressure on. The ball bounces off of him and it's just unbelievable. But one of our guys has to take ownership. You can't have miscommunication with 12 seconds to go. Somebody just has to clear it out of there and then we can talk about how we'll handle overtime. It is what is. They are a good team and they gave us all we could handle."

The Billikens (4-6-1, 2-2), the A-10 regular season champ in 2016, scored the game's first goal in the 57th minute on a through ball in the box. It didn't take the Patriots and Hester long to respond.

Sophomore Ryan Mingachos toed the endline and passed the ball off to Hester. The 6-foot-4 midfielder from Middleburg, Virginia, settled the ball, dribbled to the side of a defender and scorched a shot into the left side of the box.

SLU jumped back in front just minutes later. Matteo Kidd also got his foot into a shot, scoring from 20 yards out after a Billikens pass had been broken up and bounced in Kidd's direction. Hester wasn't done, though.

Senior captain Henning Dirks moved the ball up the field in transition and got a pass off to Hester. On the run, he struck the ball and buried a shot in the bottom right corner to tie the game again in the 74th minute.

After just four shots in the first half, Mason fired off eight in the second half. All five of the Patriots' shots on goal came after halftime. SLU attempted 15 shots, including 10 on goal. Chambers made seven saves in his first start since Sept. 16. Billikens' keeper Sascha Otte made three saves.

The Patriots will try to bounce back and earn their first A-10 win of the season against in-state rival VCU at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at George Mason Stadium. The Rams had been in first place in the league before suffering its first conference loss on Saturday against George Washington.

With just four conference games remaining, Mason, with just one point so far, has a lot of work to do in order to qualify for the eight-team A-10 tournament in November.

"It becomes even more critical, with four (games) left and no wins in the conference, there is literally very little margin for error," Andrulis said. "We've got to get healthy, get ready and, I mean, (VCU) is the best team in the conference. So we're going to have to measure up and play a lot better than we have been."