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MANSFIELD – Freshman Renae Bowman scored the winning goal in her first collegiate soccer match two minutes into overtime to lift Mansfield to a 2-1 win over Goldey-Beacom in the season opener for both teams Friday afternoon.

“It's a very good way to start the season,” said head coach Tim Dempsey. “We passed the ball well and created a number of excellent scoring opportunities that we know we should have scored on.”

Bowman, who also assisted on Mansfield's first goal of the game, took a free ball off a defender in front of the net and lifted it with her knee in the upper left hand corner of the net for the winning score.

Mansfield took an early lead in the game scoring in the 29th minute when junior Erika Moyer took a pass from Bowman and beat the last defender to the goal to allow Mansfield to go into halftime with a 1-0 lead.

The Mountaineers controlled much of the offensive action in the second half with at least five scoring opportunities, including two that went off the post, but couldn't score an insurance goal.

With five minutes remaining in the game, Goldey-Beacom put a shot on goal that went off the outstretched hands of a diving Alexis Wilhelm but was picked up by trailer Kelly Williams and put into goal to tie the score at 1-1.

“The goal scorers always get attention,” Dempsey said. “But I thought our defense played well today especially considering they're all almost freshmen. Sara Weaver did a nice job in the back and so did Kaitlin Gross in the second half.”

Mansfield had 18 shots in the game including nine on goal to Goldey-Beacom's 14 shots, seven of which were on goal. Wilhelm was credited with five saves while Goldey-Beacom's Kristin Degenhardt had seven saves.

It marks the third straight season opener win for the Mountaineers and the sixth time Mansfield won its season opener in the program's 10-year history.

Mansfield will host Bloomfield College this Sunday starting at 1:30 p.m.