It was thrilling right to the end.

Down 2-0 early in the second half and still trailing by a goal entering the final five minutes pof regulation, John Carroll forced overtime, then survived a penalty kick shootoutby a 5-4 count  to advance their season to the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament semifinals.

Box Score

Tuesday night at Mount Union Stadium in Alliance, the visiting Blue Streaks fought uphill for a majority of the quarterfinal match against the host Purple Raiders. Seeded fifth, JCU was looking for its first road win since October 9 against a fourth-seeded Mount Union team that had gone over 250 minutes without allowing a goal.

Matters took a bleak turn in the 27th minute when Thomas Beck -- who scored the game0-winning goal against JCU in a 1-0 victory during the regular season -- tallied the first points of the match with a header off of free kick by Leo Hicks.

Beck added to the Blue Streaks' misery when he converted a penalty kick in the 51st minute.

Behind 2-0, JCU began the long climb back with Kyle Buxman getting his team on the scoreboard with a goal on the 54th minute. Kevin McKamish then put up the equalizer in the 71st minute when he converted a pass from Buxman.

Mount Union would throw up a tremendous hurdle to the John Carroll comeback when Beck completed a hat trick with a goal in the 79th minute.

As the clock ticked down to the end of regulation, the Blue Streaks threw a relentless attack at the Purple Raiders, and finally broke through. McKamish connected for the second time, rocketing a shot from beyond 25 yards to the far post.

JCU pressed the issue through both sessions of overtime but could not net the golden goal.

In the shootout, head coach Hector Marinaro turned to his veterans, and all five came through. Going second, Jeff Kosek and Kyle Buxman matched their Mount Union counterparts. But when Hicks missed on the third kick, Corey Rider, Wycliffe Odhiambo and finally Andrew Fatigati finished off the match to send JCU to the OAC semifinals.

Carl Contrascier made six saves to aid the cause.

John Carroll is now 11-8-1 and will advance to the next round, where it will face Heidelberg -- the top seed and OAC regular season champion -- on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m.