BANGOR, Maine - The Husson men's soccer team via Arni Hreidarsson scored a 75th minute winner despite down a man as the Eagles defeated the Kangaroos of SUNY Canton, 5-4, in an eventful North Atlantic Conference fixture at Boucher Field on Saturday afternoon. Husson remains unbeaten in the conference at 4-0-1 and 8-2-3 overall while Canton drops to 2-3-1 in the NAC and 5-6-1 overall.

It was the battle of the two top scoring players in the conference as Jordi Cabau had 9 goals heading into the match for the Eagles and Ellis Sanchez had seven for the Roos. 

Cabau got the scoring started in the 14th minute on a laser penalty kick into the bottom right corner after Jarod Bolton was taken down inside the box. Sanchez equalized the match in the 22nd minute with a free header off a free kick taken by Pedro DeSouza. 

In the 25th minute, the Eagles regained the lead. Cabau curled a shot from a bad angle inside the box and found the top corner for his second of the game. Hreidarsson joined the scoring party in the 31st minute. Bolton found himself alone with the keeper and Owen Kwong made a great save but the rebound was there for Hreidarsson and his fourth goal of the season. 

The Eagles thought they would be going into the break up by two but the Roos got a goal back in the final minute via Martin Torales. 

The start of the second half had the Eagles in front 3-2 but each team added a goal in the first five minutes of the half.  Pablo Maroto's corner was swung into the near post and the Canton defender's arm was in an unnatural position and he gave the Eagles their second penalty kick of the match. Cabau stepped up and rolled the ball home into the left corner leaving the keeper standing still. Moments later saw the game back to a one goal game as Will Austin scored from Agustin Nunez. 

The match took another turn in the 51st minute when Rafael Paganoni was sent off for an off the ball incident and the Eagles played the final 39 minutes a man down. 

SUNY Canton would score the equalizer in the 73rd minute via Jacob Deuel as all the momentum was on their side for the final 17 minutes to play. But, it was the Eagles who would find the go-ahead goal. 

In the 75th minute, Hreidarsson received the ball from Pedro Molina in the final third and the Icelandic beat four defenders before scoring into the bottom left corner for his second of the game and the final goal of the match as the Eagles held on for a 5-4 victory. 

In the battle for the NAC Golden Boot; Cabau finished the match with 12 goals on the season and his third hat trick while Sanchez is at eight goals. Benjamin Powell made three saves for his eighth win of the season in net. 

Head Coach Gavin Penny shares his thoughts after the barnburner. "We love to make games difficult for ourselves. It's hard enough to beat teams 11 v 11. But we keep giving other teams a one man advantage and several goals. I thought we did well today to score the goals we did, we worked the ball really well and attacked better than we did against UNE on Tuesday. But again we let ourselves down defensively. We must be better if we want to win the league. It was a tough match, but we showed real character after going down a man to score a goal at a disadvantage and win the game. I hope we have a better defensive showing tomorrow."

Penny hopes the defensive showing is better tomorrow (Sunday, October 10th) when the Badgers of Northern Vermont-Johnson visit Boucher Field for a North Atlantic Conference fixture with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m.