The Marshall men’s soccer team scrapped for an overtime victory over the Florida International Panthers on Saturday at Hoops Family Field, winning the game 1-0.

At the 91:55 mark, Marshall junior center back Nathan Dossantos took his only shot of the game, scoring the game winning goal; it was his first goal of the season.

The Thundering Herd improved its record to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in Conference USA while FIU’s record dropped to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in C-USA.

Dossantos said that the Herd was due for a goal in overtime after some earlier missed opportunities to get points.

“It was just the pressure, we had tons of chances”, Dossantos said. “The (goal)keeper made some amazing saves but the boys always believed.”

Marshall had an immense 28-6 edge in total shots, but it took nearly 92 minutes for the Herd to get the ball past FIU junior goalkeeper Johan Peñaranda, who had 14 saves in the game.

On the other side of the pitch, Marshall junior goalkeeper Oliver Semmle had two saves and allowed zero goals.

Semmle has only allowed three goals on the season, with two of those coming against Akron.

Even though the Herd missed some opportunities, head coach Chris Grassie said that he was very pleased with how the game went.

“I felt today was our best performance of the season,” Grassie said. “FIU has got some good players, but mano a mano we dealt with them very well.”

Another factor that contributed to Marshall’s win was that the Panthers got four cautions (yellow cards) and one ejection.

FIU junior midfielder Mauro Bravo got ejected at the 89:10 mark of the game.

Marshall only had one yellow card the entire game and no red cards.

Grassie said that this was a high emotion game and that he is proud of how Marshall handled themselves in a scrappy game.

“I think our guys really kept their composure quite well,” Grassie said. “I thought the game got a little chippy and I thought the referees did a fantastic job of managing the emotions of both teams.”

The No. 11 Marshall Thundering Herd will travel to Lexington, Ky. to take on the No. 16 Kentucky Wildcats for its next game. The game will take place on Thursday, March 18 at 5 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.

Noah Hickman can be contacted at [email protected].