MARIETTA, Ga. --- The Life University men's soccer team found themselves only minutes away from overtime in a nail biter against Shawnee State Sunday afternoon, but a late penalty kick proved to be the decider in the favor of the Bears in Mid-South Conference play on the campus of Marietta High School.

Life U (5-6-1, 3-4-1 MSC) struck first in the game, Danny DeLorijn keeping up his hot play from the last month, but Shawnee State (4-9-1, 1-7-0 MSC) came away from the contest with its first conference victory of the season. DeLorijn's score came in the ninth minute, making a nice move to evade Bears defenders and shoot the ball into the back of the net. Just four minutes later, Shawnee State evened things up with a score of their own. Life U held the offensive pressure the majority of the game, extending from the first half into the second half, taking 21 shots to only 10 from the Bears, but could not create another goal following its early score. Late in the second half, the game looking like it was head to extra time, a Life U foul in the penalty area set the Bears up with a penalty kick opportunity with under four minutes to play. Shawnee State connected on the penalty kick to take the lead, and the Running Eagles did not take another shot, losing 2-1.

Besides having a large lead in shots, Life U also took much more corner kicks with 11 to Shawnee State's one. With the Running Eagles taking so many more shots, the Bears took a 7-2 advantage in saves, while fouls were rather close between the teams, Life U being called on more at 12-11.

The men's soccer team will spend the next week on the road, starting its road trip with a Wednesday, October 20 meeting with Thomas More at 7 PM.