SEATTLE – A second-half comeback by the Simon Fraser men's soccer team fell just short as the Seattle Pacific Falcons won 4-3 in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference game Thursday night at Interbay Stadium.

With the win, SPU moved back into the lead atop the GNAC standings with 16 points. The Falcons are tied with Western Washington but have a game in hand on the Vikings and SFU (8-6-0, 5-3-0), which has 15 points. The GNAC's regular season champion earns an automatic NCAA Division II Tournament berth.
 
For the second-consecutive game, junior SFU forward Conrad Cheng opened the scoring inside the first 15 minutes. On Thursday, his marker came at 14:59. Sophomore midfielder Mark Talisuna won possession at midfield, got past a defender and fired a pass up the field to his left. Cheng ran on to the ball, moved into the penalty area, and fired a left-footed shot into the back of the net for his third goal of 2021.
 
SPU's Travis Swallow replied with a 31st-minute tally to halt SFU's shutout streak at just over 390 minutes. Then just out of halftime, the Falcons' Alex Mejia scored on an eight-yard volley to give his team the lead. The home side added two more goals, Judah Johnson in the 55th minute, and Swallow in the 60th, to seemingly take control.
 

But SFU staged a late rally. Freshman forward Brody Thomas scored his fourth goal of the season on a lunging header from seven yards out with exactly 22 minutes showing on the countdown clock. The assists went to sophomore defender Niko Papakyriakopoulos and junior forward Bjorn Borren.
 
Then with just over two minutes remaining, SFU forced a turnover deep in the opposition half. Junior midfielder Joey Mijaljevic sent the loose ball to Borren, who broke towards into the penalty area and slotted his shot to the top right of the net from about 14 yards out. It was his second goal of the campaign, and they have both come in the last two games.
 
Unfortunately for SFU, there was not enough time left to get the tie.

The Canadian visitors had a slight edge in shots 12-11, but SPU had more shots on target (6-5) and more corner kicks (4-3). Both goalkeepers – Aidan Bain of SFU and Lars Helleren of SPU – made two saves.
 
There are just two matches left in the regular season for SFU. Saturday's contest is at Montana State Billings (3-7-3, 1-4-2 GNAC) and is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. PT. SFU will host Senior Night on Nov. 13 against Western Washington.

- With files from Seattle Pacific Athletics
 
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