JACKSON, Miss. – Trailing 1-0 midway through the first half, Nova Southeastern's fortunes reversed when Delta State's Tom Bar-Yosef was credited with a red card. Playing with an extra man for the duration of the match, the Sharks feasted on the Statesmen before Nate Matthews finally cashed in with the game-winning goal in the 86^th minute to lift Nova Southeastern to a 2-1 victory.
 
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Score: Nova Southeastern 2, Delta State 1
Records: Nova Southeastern (1-1, 0-0 SSC), Delta State (1-1, 0-0 GSC)
Location: Belhaven Bowl Stadium | Jackson, Miss.
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HOW IT HAPPENED:

• After the Sharks held Delta State without a shot for the opening 19:58 of the match, Myron Duffy linked up with Brock Hollier to give the Statesmen the early advantage.
• The tides turned in favor of the "good guys", though, in the 37^th minute when Bar-Yosef was whistled off for the hard foul. Nova Southeastern immediately seized the opportunity, peppering Delta State keeper Harvey Stevens when Ignacio Goya took a Lucas Dessoliers feed and capitalized with the equalizer minutes before halftime. .
• The Statesmen held on for dear life against the Sharks, but couldn't quite slow the play-making ability once again of Goya. This time on the passing end, the transfer from Monroe College played a beautiful ball to Nate Matthews in the 86^th minute for the decisive score.
• Earning the nod in net, goalkeeper Nico Rosiglioni recorded three saves in the effort to pick up his fourth career win.    

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:

• Two days after Thursday's season debut, head coach matt Watts shuffled up the lineup by inserting five new starters: Ignacio Goya, Oliver Karlsson, Darwin Lom, Nathaniel Pells and Nico Rosiglioni.
• Saturday's win marked Nova Southeastern's first neutral-site victory since beating Carson Newman 1-0 in overtime back on September 9, 2011.
• The 'W' over Delta State was a bit sweeter for Watts on Saturday. Watts earned his first head job in charge of the DSU program back in 2011, leading the Statesmen to the program's first-ever Gulf South Conference Tournament final a year later.   

 
STATS OF THE NIGHT:

• Goya tallied three points in his NSU debut versus Delta State. Only five Sharks totaled more than three points in all of 2016.
• Nova Southeastern finished on the winning side of a whopping 21-6 margin in the shot column. In 15 matches a year ago, the Sharks failed to reach the 20-shot mark once.  
• Matthews' late score in the victory marked the first game-winning goal of his four-year, NSU career.

WATTS' WORDS:

• "Everyone across the board did a great job. It's hard to go away from home and beat teams like this when you're playing on turf and in bad weather. I'm proud of the boys and happy to be coming home with a win under our belt."
• "All the boys worked incredibly hard. We dominated the match, and had majority of the possession. Their red card was not deserved, but that's part of the game and we took advantage of it."
• "We were just missing that final touch, whether it be the pass or the finish. We got incredibly unlucky with some of our finishes, definitely something we can work on and get better with."

UP NEXT:
Following two matches away from the NSU Soccer Complex to begin the season, the Sharks will return to Fort Lauderdale for their home debut on Thursday against St. Thomas (Fla.). Watts and company edged the Bobcats 1-0 in their most recent meeting on September 6, 2016. For complete coverage of the action, visit the schedule page on NSUSharks.com.