Transfer Brandon Pfluger, defender, steals the ball from a Bradley player on September 18th. SMU won the game at Wescott Field 2-0. CASEY LEE/The Daily Campus

After two scoreless overtimes, the SMU Mustangs tied with the University of Central Florida Golden Knights during Saturday’s match on Westcott Field. The final score was 3-3; however, the Mustangs had an impressive comeback to achieve such a score.

Within the first 15 minutes of the game, the Golden Knights were able to score twice on the Mustangs, which was not the ideal start SMU was hoping for.

Senior Dane Saintus was able to cut UCF’s lead in half with his eighth goal of the year for the team with an assist from junior Josue Soto. This was Soto’s second assist of the year. The game remained steady until the Golden Knights scored in the 80th minute with an unassisted free kick goal from Nik Robson.

The Mustangs didn’t leave the score at 3-1 for long though. Senior Esteban Mariel scored from more than 25 yards away with another assist from Soto, his second on the night. With the clock nearing 90 minutes and their season about to end, senior Paulo da Silva scored an unassisted goal from outside the 25-yard box, sending the game into overtime. Da Silva’s goal was his fifth goal of the season for the Mustangs.

Despite action that was present in regular play, the two overtimes featured the exact opposite, as neither team was able to score again, and the game ended in a tie.

Head coach Tim McClements said, “It’s disappointing and encouraging all in the same moment. … It took a lot of character to come back, they could either fold or fight.”

The Mustangs managed to outshoot the Golden Knights 38-15. SMU goalkeeper Kevin McMullen had a total of three saves and played all 110 minutes.

“Everybody wants to win, we had to look at each other in the eye and were like we have to do this for each other,” said da Silva, commenting on the change of play during the game.

Because this game ended in a tie, the Mustangs will now need to win or tie their next two matches to be eligible for the Conference USA Championship on Nov. 13 and 15.

SMU will play Kentucky in a re-scheduled match on Nov. 7. In recent seasons, SMU has won five out of seven matches, however the two most reason games have resulted in Kentucky’s favor.

The last regular season game for the Mustangs will be against Florida International University. SMU has won 13 out of the past 15 games against the FIU Golden Panthers.