By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
For the third straight contest, the Murray State Aggies rode a dramatic late finish for another low-scoring victory in toppling Rose State College, 2-1, on Sunday in Tishomingo.

The Aggies' two previous wins came by 1-0 margins with stunning goals and the club's third in a row held up to the same standard as Coach John Connor's squad evened their record at 5-5 by forging the twinbill split. In the process they also avenged a 2-1 loss to the Raiders on the road a month ago.

Murray State women continued to struggle offensively in the opener, suffering a 3-0 defeat and third straight shutout.

"I've got enough stress with a four-week-old baby at home, so I don't need all this stress to be honest, but a win is a win," Connor joked afterward. "Hopefully we can make it where games aren't coming right down to the end every time. Rose is always one of our biggest rivals. Both games were physical games with a lot of emotion that you have to keep in check."

The men's contest was a fierce, physical battle throughout a scoreless opening half and that style continued past the intermission break as well.

Murray State finally broke the ice just over seven minutes into the second half when Carl Murch took a feed from Cesar Solis on the left side of the goal and punched in a crossing shot past the Rose State keeper and into the right net.

It appeared as if that goal might hold up for the Aggies' third straight win thanks to stellar defense and goalkeeping by Canada native Melvin Bonilla before the Raiders managed to head in a goal off a free kick with only 3:25 remaining.

Instead of settling for overtime, the Aggies remained aggressive and were fouled by the Rose State keeper on a scoring chance in the box setting up a potential game-winning penalty kick from the Murray State offensive catalyst Solis.

Unlike Wednesday's decision over NOC-Tonkawa, Solis delivered this time in faking right and then slapping what proved to be the winner just right of the diving Raider keeper.

In the Tonkawa contest it was Spain's Frank Perez that drove home the winning score with five minutes remaining for the 1-0 Murray State triumph.

"We are cleaning it up defensively and playing well on that end and all we can do is keep working hard," Connor added. "Marcus Momolu and William De Dios have been outstanding as defenders and Brian Beltran gives us a lot of versatility with the ability to come up or back. Those guys have played really well in this winning streak."

The women's game was a defensive struggle as well throughout the first 45-minute half with an early Rose State goal the only score as they carried a 1-0 edge to the half.

Rose State added a second goal on a tap in off a centering shot at the 37:19 mark and then a final goal on a penalty kick with just under 16 minutes remaining.

It was the Lady Aggies' third consecutive shutout defeat in a rugged stretch after they had won four of five contests.

"We struggled getting into attack mode," head coach Gary Akin commented. "We've got to do little things better in the midfield and do little things better attack wise. Those little things start to add up. We've had a rough stretch with the number three team in the country and the number 19 team in the country in the past week so we're on a bit of a lag. We've just got to reset and get back on the ball."

Sunday was just the start of an extremely busy week for the Murray State clubs as they travel to Arkansas Rich Mountain on Tuesday. The Lady Aggies will host Redlands on Friday with both teams taking on visiting Eastern on Sunday.