Box Score    |     • VIDEO: Bryson  Pavel

SEATTLE – The season-long clean sheet picked up a smudge, but the loss column remained unblemished.
 
Bryson Pavel beat the goalkeeper one-on-one early in the second half, and No. 3-ranked Seattle Pacific bounced back from yielding its first goal of the year to pull out a 1-1 double-overtime tie against Concordia of Oregon on Saturday night in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer game at Interbay Stadium.
 
The Falcons (5-0-2, 1-0-2 GNAC) are deeper into the season without a loss than all but two previous SPU squads. They have matched the seven-game unbeaten start of the 2012 team (6-0-1). The 1987 unit went 8-0-1 before losing its 10th game.
 
Goalkeeper Cody Lang and the SPU defense had kept opponents off the scoreboard for the first 612 minutes, 53 seconds of their schedule, covering a span of 6 1/2 games. Concordia's Ben Culpan ended that streak just 4:40 into the second half when he drove a free kick from the top of the arc off the left side of a five-man SPU wall and watched it take two bounces into the net. It was his third goal of the year.
 
The Cavaliers goal halted SPU's school-record stretch of six shutouts to start the year, a figure that erased the previous standard of four season-opening clean sheets established in 1993.
 
Falcons coach Mark Collings was more concerned about the impact that yielding a goal had on his team's record than on the demise of a lengthy scoring drought for this year's opponents.
 
"The streak is really secondary. To give up that goal after a tough call and to have it deflect like that, it's more difficult to know that it caused the tie than that we gave up our first goal."
 
Senior defender Pavel pulled the Falcons even exactly seven minutes later.
 
 "We had a great response to giving up our first goal of the year," said Collings. "We were kind of wondering how that would go and the guys responded really well."
 
Senior midfielder Garrett Jones (Boise, Idaho) started the play with a through ball toward the left side. Pavel (Boise, Idaho) was there immediately, took it alone into the left side of the penalty area, and with goalkeeper Mitch McCaw coming off his line, slotted a shot around him and into the left side for his first goal of the fall.
 


This was the second straight overtime game for Seattle Pacific, and its third this season. On Thursday, the Falcons and No. 22 Northwest Nazarene battled to a 0-0 tie at Interbay.
 
SPU had several opportunities for the go-ahead goal through the rest of Saturday's second half. The most dangerous of those came with 6:20 left when senior midfielder Matt Merchant (Portland, Ore.) fired from the top right side of the box, only to see McCaw slap it away.
 
In the waning seconds of the first 10-minute overtime period, a long Falcons throw-in from the attacking left side gave junior midfielder Chaz Jenkins (Everett HS) a short-range header in the box, but it was knocked wide of the right post by McCaw. With the clock ticking inside the final 10 seconds, sophomore forward Julian White (Redmond HS) had a shot on McCaw's front porch that was stopped in a traffic jam of bodies.
 
"We were a little unfortunate not to put another one away," Collings described. "The ball was just sitting there a couple times and we couldn't seem to get it. We played better than we did the other night, but we're all still a little disappointed with the result here."
 
The only dangerous chance for either side in the second and final OT was a 25-yarder by SPU senior forward Ian Adams (Shoreline HS) that curled wide of the right post.
 
Concordia (3-2-1, 1-1-1 GNAC) is in its first year at the NCAA Division II level after moving up from up from the NAIA.
 
The Falcons had three chances to get on the board during the first half. Late in the 25th minute, senior midfielder Danny Olivas (Phoenix, Ariz.) delivered a through ball that sophomore forward Gabe Kellum (Rennes, France) took into the penalty area one on one against Cavaliers goalkeeper McCaw. But McCaw came way off of his line, forced Kellum toward the left side of the box, then deflected the shot away.

 

Just into the 35th minute, Jones had a shot straight on from the top of the box that was blocked. The rebound came right back to Jones, but his subsequent shot was denied on a sliding save by McCaw.
 
Lang (Spokane, Wash./Lewis & Clark HS) was credited with two saves while his Concordia counterpart, McCaw, had eight.
 
The SPU men now embark on their most difficult road trip of the season, taking them through three states and Canada. The quartet of away games begins on Thursday, Oct. 1 in Bellingham, Wash. with a 7 p.m. game against Western Washington.
 
"It will be a big game on Thursday at Western. They're always ready for us," Collings said.
 
"It's a big week for us with school starting. There are a lot more distractions around than there have been. The big thing for us is to stay together and continue to work on our attack and see if we can find a way to finish some of these opportunities that we've created."
 
 
NCAA MEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015
Interbay Stadium / Seattle, Wash.
 
#3 Seattle Pacific 1, Concordia 1 (2ot)
 
Scoring – 1, CU, Ben Culpan (unassisted), 49:40; 2, SPU, Bryson Pavel (Garrett Jones), 56:40.
 
Shots – CU 9, SPU 19.
Saves – CU (Mitch McCaw) 8, SPU (Cody Lang) 2.
Corner kicks – CU 1, SPU 8.
Fouls – CU 20, SPU 11.
Offsides – CU 1 SPU 5.
Attendance – 375.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 5-0-2, 1-0-2 GNAC
Concordia 3-2-1, 1-1-1 GNAC
 
Next SPU men's game
Seattle Pacific at Western Washington
Thursday, Oct. 1, 7:00 p.m.
Harrington Field / Bellingham, Wash.