Santa Ana, CA- In a fire battle between the Firestorm of Arizona Christian and the Flames of Bethesda, ACU pulled off a thrilling 3-2 double overtime win on Friday at Santa Ana Stadium.  An own goal opened the scoring for the Firestorm while Senior Luis Tapia and Freshman Juan Mora finalized the ACU scoring.

The first 45 minutes was played without too much drama.  Freshman goalkeeper Joshua Stewart pushed a hard shot wide of the post- one of three shots he faced in the first half.  The Firestorm (2-1) managed six shots with several blocked and two saved.

In the first minute of the second half, the Flames (0-2) broke the scoreless tie.

About nine minutes later ACU answered.  With Mora crashing hard from the right side, he drilled shot saved by the BUC goalkeeper but the rebound deflected off the body of an oncoming BUC defender and into the net to tie the game at 1-1.

Tapia gave ACU their first lead of the contest in the 77th minute when he headed home a cross served up from the right side by Freshman Isaac Pedraza.  But the Firestorm could only hold the lead for six and a half minutes.

In the 88th minute, playing his first game as a Firestorm, Junior Daniel Chavez connected on what appeared to be a sure goal that was just blocked away by a Flames defender.

With a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation, the teams headed into overtime.

The first overtime saw Bethesda send a shot wide left.  Junior Ryan Scarpulla nearly ended the match in dramatic fashion in the 97th minute when he hammered a header from about 10 yards out off the post and crossbar.

Mora rattled an indirect free kick in the box off the post two minutes into the second overtime.

Finally in the 105th minute, Junior Hasani Nunez found real estate on the left side and played a ball forward to Mora who buried the game winner into the right corner of the goal.

Director of Soccer Alan Berrios commented, "Like last year, another tough battle against a good, disciplined Bethesda team.  I thought we did well going forward.  Created multiple opportunities. Bethesda did a good job countering our attack and got in behind several times.  Both teams worked hard for the win.  I think what gave us the win was that we were a little deeper than them coming off the bench.  I am excited for the men as they earned a result that could have easily gone the other way.  We took another good step in preparing for conference play."

The Firestorm will return to the pitch on Saturday when they face off with Providence Christian College at Villa Parke in Pasadena at 1:00 pm.