The Bruins win an absolute thriller of a match to open up the national tournament against the Randall University Saints on a last minute goal scored by Bryce Ramler which gave the Bruins the 3-2 victory.

"Today was always about taking the right first step and I think the guys did a fantastic job dealing with difficulty to still come away with an important victory," Head Coach Greg Fulton said. 

To the surprise of many, the Saints scored very quickly into the first half giving them an early 1-0 lead in the 5th minute. After that, the Bruins controlled the possession and offensive side for nearly the rest of the game. It wasn't but 13 minutes later that Jake Provenzano won a penalty kick for the Bruins which Mario Figueroa took and calmly put into the net. With that goal, Figueroa became the all-time leading goal-scorer in men's program history. The rest of the half contained a lot of bully ball by the Bruins, but couldn't put in any of the 12 other shots taken in the half. It was 1-1 at the break.

The same way that the Saints opened the first half, the Bruins opened the second half. In the 49th minute, a flick in the box from Matthias Baladi found Rylan Boldt who scored to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead. The chances for the Saints the rest of the half were slim, even though they had a little more possession than in the first half. They were able to capitalize on a collision in the box that involved Bruins goalkeeper Braswell and basically took him out of the play. The score was knotted at 2-2 for the rest of the game until the very last minute, and simply, the Saints seemed alright with it. The Bruins were not. In the 90th minute, after some pinball in the box, and in a moment of the highest pressure, Bryce Ramler put in the game-winner leading to an eruption of the Bruins bench and crowd. The Saints had one final chance but was cleared away by the Bruins right before the final whistle. 

"The effort never stopped. We knew we had to fight for the full 90 minutes, and that's exactly what the guys did," said Coach Fulton. "We know that there are things that we have to do better to win the tournament, but it's survive, advance, and look forward."

This 3-2 victory gives the Bruins the much needed three points in pool play with two guaranteed matches to go. 

They play next tomorrow, November 19 at 1:00 p.m. against Kansas Christian College to continue their road to a national title.

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