Mobile, Ala. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's soccer team open home Gulf South Conference (GSC) play with a 3-2 victory over Union University on Sunday afternoon.
 
In a game that was intense and physical from the outset, SHC had to come from behind and then hold on to earn it opening GSC win of the season. Both teams battled hard for the first 25 minutes with neither team coming away with a score. The teams were forced to take a break in the action during a lightning delay with 19:08 left in the first period. Union capitalized on a Badger miscue immediately after play resumed and took a 1-0 lead in the 27^th minute. Spring Hill would regain its composure and produced the equalizer with just 21 seconds remaining before halftime when Zach Witt found Alex Lipinski on a ball through the box to the far post that Lipinski deflected into the net to even things at 1-1.
 
The Badger came out firing on all cylinders in the second period after some lineup adjustments at halftime. SHC took the lead in the 53^rd minute on a beautiful corner kick to the middle of the net from Tilman Schober that Josh Pedretti deflected to Alex Lipinski. Lipinski took the pass and drove his shot past the Bulldog keeper for a 2-1 SHC lead. Exactly 6 minutes later, Lipinski would return the favor to Schober when he deflected a throw in towards the box. Schober took the pass and score on a one touch bender around the keeper to stake the Badgers to a 3-1 advantage. Union didn't fold and made things interesting when they scored in the 66^th minutes to cut the Badger lead to 3-2.
 
The last 14 minutes of the match saw the Badgers defense bend but not break as Union created several opportunities. However, the SHC defense was up to the task and thwarted Union's attempts as completing the comeback. Alessandro Erdyli took the victory in goal and made 3 saves against 9 Union shots. For the match, Union outshot SHC 9-7 but both teams had 5 shots on goal.
 
"It was a very demanding game today," said Head Coach Steve Wieczorek. "Union was tough and would probably consider themselves unlucky to not get something from the game. I was pleased with our response to going down 1-0 and our overall second half performance to get the win today."
 
The Badgers (4-1, 1-0 GSC) will continue step out of GSC action when they travel to take on Georgia Southwestern State University on Wednesday, September 19^th at 7:00 PM.