UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For the second-straight match, The University of Hartford men's soccer team came up just one goal short of its opponent as it fell in a nail biter by a 3-2 final at Penn State on Monday evening. The Hawks and Nittany Lions battled to a 1-1 draw after the first stanza, but a pair of late goals in the final period powered Penn State (2-0-0) to victory at Jeffrey Field.

The two squads played an even opening stanza as Penn State (2-0-0) outshot Hartford (0-2-0) by just one attempt, 4-3, to result in a 1-1 draw after 45 minutes. In the second, the Nittany Lions doubled the Hawks' five shots and managed to sneak two past keeper Viltsu Tuumi late in the contest and pull ahead by a 3-1 count.

With the final minutes slipping off the scoreboard, freshman Javoni Simms helped the Hawks claw within one goal, but the momentum came too late as the visiting squad ran out of time to complete the comeback bid.

Penn State threatened to score early on in the match with a series of shots 20 seconds apart from one another as Daniel Burnham narrowly missed the net when he rifled a ball off the far post at the 12:54 mark and Julian Cardona had his first attempt kicked out by Hartford's defensive line.

The third time proved to be a charm for the Nittany Lions, however, as Cardona hooked up with teammate Minh Vu in the 20th minute to put their team up, 1-0, with his third goal of the young season.

Similarly to the season opener at West Virginia, the Hawks did not allow the home team's advantage to last long as David Bernhardsson countered just eight minutes later to level the game at 1-1. After the Nittany Lions were whistled for offsides, the junior striker capitalized on the miscue and netted his first goal of the season in the 28th minute after driving a ball through the defense and connecting on a 10-yard shot.

After some back-and-forth play early in the second half, Penn State took advantage of a costly Hartford mistake. The Hawks committed a foul inside of the box with nine minutes left, awarding Penn State a penalty kick opportunity. Cardona converted on the kick by reaching the upper right corner of the net to regain the lead at 2-1.

Just over three minutes later, Owen Griffith made it two unanswered goals for Penn State after converting on a feed from Burnham in the 84th minute. The goal proved to be the dagger as the Hawks got one goal back in the closing seconds of regulation in a series that was initiated by Simms who also put the finishing touches on the play.

With one minute left, Simms saw a scoring chance, but Penn State keeper Emmanuel Martin was in place to make the deflection, sending the ball back over the end line. On the ensuing corner kick scramble, senior Kevin Lewis set up Simms, who punched-in the first goal of his career. In the final seconds, Hartford regained control, but Bernhardsson's desperation shot went left of the post.

Hartford will look to rebound when it heads to the Bronx, N.Y. to take on Fordham on Fri., Aug. 31 for a 7:00 p.m. match-up. The two teams were introduced to each other for the first time last season with the Rams taking a 1-0 victory over the Hawks.