FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Ahead late in regulation, Nova Southeastern allowed two Rollins goals in a 2:40 span before falling in a heartbreaking, 4-3 affair Saturday night at the NSU Soccer Complex.
 
Midfielder Bestun Mohammed added to his team-leading total with a pair of goals in the effort, but his performance proved not to be enough as the Tars' James Winchester pumped a Tosan Popo assist into the back of the net in the 86^th minute to drop the Sharks to 2-9, 0-6 in the Sunshine State Conference.
 
The Sharks defense fended off a number of Rollins threats throughout the match, being outshot by a final 22-12 margin, yet couldn't quite hold on against a Tars club that has now played three games in the last five days.
 
A weather delay halted play less than five minutes into the match. Both teams, though, shrugged off the wait and came back out of the locker room firing offensively. The Tars opened the back-and-forth battle in the eighth minute when Fritz Engel cleaned up a bouncing corner kick attempt for his first goal of the season.
 
Mohammed quickly erased that 1-0 deficit, however. Streaking down the pitch, Viktor Jonsson played a perfect ball on the ground across the 18-yard box for the Oslo, Norway native to clean up and draw the Sharks back even just 66 seconds after Rollins' previous score.
 
Mohammed wasn't done yet, either. In the 16^th minute, the graduate student ended up on the receiving end of a pass from Caue Rodrigues and poked a well-placed shot just out of the reach of Tars' keeper Julian Grundler to put Nova Southeastern in front 2-1. Following a slow start to the 2016 campaign, Mohammed has now recorded four goals in his last four games.  
 
A strike by Rollins' Ben Grant knotted the match up at 2-2 in the 27^th minute. As they'd already done once, though, in the contest, the Sharks answered back in the form of an attacking offensive display. A play that started with Stefan Faistenauer eventually ended up at the feet of Faycal Oulahbib, who cashed in to help Nova Southeastern reclaim a 3-2 advantage.
 
The Sharks clung to that same 3-2 edge after surviving a Stefan Avram shot off the post, but the "bend-but-don't-break" defense eventually succumbed to the Rollins pressure in what now marks the fifth one-goal defeat for head coach Matt Watts' team.
 
Rodrigues' multi-assist performance Saturday is the first of his career.
 
NSU will look to end its recent tough stretch when it returns to action next Wednesday on the road at No. 8 Barry. For complete coverage of the action, visit NSUSharks.com and click on the provided links on the schedule page