OWINGS MILLS, Md. - The Neumann University men's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss in its season opener on Friday evening, dropping a 2-1 result in overtime to host Stevenson University.

Freshman Tenzin Choedak scored the lone goal of the game off a feed from Marlon Trejo, while Seth Walker was outstanding in his first career game in goal, stopping 13 shots in the loss.

The two teams battled back and forth in the opening half of play, but the half would end in a scoreless stalemate. The Mustangs outshot Neumann by a count of 9-4, but the Knights had the best chance to open the scoring. Sophomore Gavin Ford found himself in behind the defense, but his right footed half volley was denied by the Stevenson net-minder to keep the game at 0-0.

The game would be flipped on its head early in the second half when Ford received a second yellow card and the Knights needed to play the remainder of the game down a man. Undaunted by the adversity of the situation, Neumann took the game to the Mustangs almost immediately after going down to 10 men. Senior Brady Simon was fouled in the box to set up a penalty kick for the visitors just under a minute later. Marlon Trejo saw his effort stopped by the Stevenson goalie on the spot kick, but after the ball was knocked out for a corner, the junior midfielder delivered a brilliant ball off a corner kick that was redirected home by Choedak to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

From there the Knights spent much of the remaining 40 minutes defending their lead. The visitors played inspired, holding Stevenson at bay until the 89th minute of play with excellent team defending and toughness. Despite the effort, Neumann could not find a way to keep the Mustangs off the board. The hosts found the back of the net off a throw in with just 1:27 left to play to knot the contest up and send it to overtime.

The extra session would be all Stevenson. With the Knights gassed from playing down a man for nearly an entire half of the game, the Mustangs found the game-winner just three minutes into overtime. A through ball behind the Neumann back-line found a streaking Stevenson forward who deposited the ball past a diving Walker to give the hosts the victory.

Neumann (0-1) will look to respond tomorrow with a match at Goucher College. Game-time is scheduled for 5:00 PM.