Chestnut Hill College freshman goalie Mike Goldstein recorded a shutout in the Griffins’ last home game of the season.

Chestnut Hill College’s players, coaches, and fans felt the final home soccer game of the season shouldn’t have gone into overtime at all, but at least things turned out well for the Griffins in the end. Sophomore Mike Gough’s goal early in a second OT period decided the Oct. 26 contest, as CHC posted a 1-0 non-conference victory against visiting Mountain Cats from the University of Pittsburgh’s Johnstown campus.

Freshman goaltender Mike Goldstein made three saves to earn the shutout for Chestnut Hill, which raised its record to 3-11-2 overall while remaining 1-8-2 within the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Pitt-Johnstown returned to western Pennsylvania with a record of 6-11-1.

The Griffins already had a number of scoring opportunities in the first half, but kept hitting everything but open space. After an offsides call halted a two-man breakaway by the hosts, CHC’s Carl Essenthier had a shot deflected by a visiting fullback, and later on he had another ball blocked by the keeper near the left post.

Fellow freshman Ryan Lannutti had a chance right in the middle of the box but sent the ball into the goalie’s gut, and late in the opening period sophomore Billy Shulski also hit an opponent’s body instead of the net.

“Our conference has been so tough this year that we haven’t had many times when we’ve gotten the ball to guys in good scoring position,” admitted CHC coach Seamus O’Connor. “Today against a non-conference team, we got those chances but we almost seemed surprised when we did. As we start getting those touches in the box on a more regular basis, we should do a better job of keeping our heads and finishing the play.”

Things continued in the same vein in the second half; in the first three minutes CHC sophomore Gavin Reid booted a shot a little wide to the right, and a header by Essenthier was tipped over the crossbar by Mountain Cats goalkeeper Craig Neff (12 saves total).

Later, one shot by Griffins junior Anthony O’Connor skimmed the top of the bar, and another was stopped by Neff. The visiting keeper also knocked down a hard shot from the left side of the box by Chestnut Hill’s Chris Moore. Although Pitt-Johnstown had far fewer scoring opportunities, in the middle of the period a flick by Zeke Buchta came close to the upper left corner of the CHC cage, and then a solid shot by Buchta was stopped by CHC’s Goldstein with two minutes remaining in regulation play.

Neither club came close to ending the stalemate in the first ten-minute golden-goal overtime, as outside shots by the Griffins’ Reid and the Mountain Cats’ Jeremy Jones failed to find the net. Early in the second OT, Moore received a pass as he got loose on a promising run for Chestnut Hill, but was called offsides.

The Griffins kept the play in the offensive half, and from outside the 18 Reid delivered a short, high chip to the middle of the box. The keeper, Neff, was a little too late as he advanced towards the airborne ball, and Gough popped a header over him to end the game one minute and 37 seconds into the second overtime period.