St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Crown men's soccer team suffered their second overtime loss of the season on Tuesday, a heartbreaker against North Central.  The Storm came from 2-0 down to send the game to extra time, but were done in by a stroke of bad luck as the Rams escaped with the 3-2 victory.  The loss drops Crown to 0-2-3 and overtime games this year.

North Central scored once in the first half, and again to open the second half to jump out to a two goal lead, despite Crown controlling the run of play for most of the opening hour. 

The Storm got on the board on a rare occasion when the North Central goalkeeper handled a back-pass in the box, giving Crown an indirect free kick from about six yards out. 
Ger Jones blasted the ball through the Rams line, getting the deflection into the back of the net to pull the Storm back to within a goal at 2-1.

It took Crown until the waning moments of the match to find the equalizer, but that's exactly what they did through freshman Hunter Smith.  Smith chased down a dangerous ball and beat out the NCU center back and goalkeeper, tapping home into the open net after an impressive individual effort.
 
Early in extra time Crown had a golden opportunity to claim the victory, but a well worked corner kick was saved by the Rams.  Just minutes later, on an NCU corner, the ball was headed into the back of Steven Klapak, but settled right at his feet, allowing him to finish with a classy back-heel strike for the golden goal.

The game was as even as the score line suggested, with Crown firing 17 shots to 16 for the Rams.  The loss all but eliminated Crown from postseason contention, with only away games at Minnesota Morris and Northwestern remaining for the Storm.