By Don Gilmore, TMU Assistant Sports Editor

Choosing the right player to take the potential game-winning penalty kick Saturday afternoon was an easy choice for TMU head coach Jim Rickard.

Trevor Mangan (pictured above).

“Trevor is very emotionless and has done well in practice with pks,” said the 28th-year mentor.

The coach’s choice was confirmed when Mangan sent his kick past Southern Oregon Wyatt Zabinski with one second left in the second overtime to give The Master’s University a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Raiders.

The win capped a very successful opening weekend south of San Francisco as the Mustangs captured their first two matches of the season.

“Today showed a lot of growth in a quick turnaround game,” added Rickard, who alluded to Friday’s 3-1 victory over Northwest Christian. “It’s highly unusual to win with one second left in the second golden goal overtime and because of that this will be a win we talk about for years to come.”

Mangan’s golden goal completed a comeback for the Mustangs, who tallied the match’s first goal and then fell behind 2-1 before evening the score with just under 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

Dylan Bielanski opened the match’s scoring, taking a pass from Matthew Logan and driving one past Zabinski at the 16:03 mark of the opening half. It was Bielanski’s first goal of the season and Logan’s second assist in as many days.

The Mustangs clung to that 1-0 lead until the 26th minute when SOU’s Noah Addie tied the match with an unassisted goal.

That 1-1 score stood up well into the second half. However, in the 77th minute (76:19), the Raiders unlocked the tie when Zak Woolley pushed one past TMU goalie Matheus Taraszkiewicz.

Taraszkiewicz finished with four saves.

The Mustangs were not done, though. Just over four minutes later (80:33), Logan assumed the role of scorer, capitalizing on a Luis Garcia Sosa pass to deadlock the match at 2-all.

It stayed that way through the end of regulation and the first overtime period, and would have been the final score if not for the last-second heroics of Mangan.

Rickard was pleased with the way his goal scorers (Bielanski, Logan, and Mangan) capitalized on their chances and more.

“All three came up big with their opportunities today,” he said. “We also played as a unit with flow to our offense that we struggled with yesterday.”

Here’s the box score.

Fresh off their two road victories, the Mustangs returned to Southern California to prepare for next weekend’s home opener.

TMU will host Oregon Tech on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in the second game (Hope International takes on UC Merced in the opener) of The Master’s Fall Classic and then will take on UC Merced on Saturday afternoon.