DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – The Davenport men's soccer team showed their composure as they were pushed into penalty kicks Tuesday morning (Dec. 1) in the second round of the NAIA National Tournament in a matchup with Campbellsville University. Sophomore goalkeeper Aaron Orban saved the Panther season in the penalty kick session with two clutch saves to secure a DU victory.

The Panthers fell behind early to the No. 15-seed Tigers when a play into the box resulted in a shot by Campbellsville that deflected off of a DU player and beat Orban in the 14th minute. The Panthers would then fight off this momentum gained by the Tigers as they responded in the 29th minute when Cam Cavanagh played a beautiful ball into the box just after he crossed mid-field that opened a scoring lane for Jake Love and the Panthers tied the game. The teams would finish the half in an evenly matched game as DU held the edge in shots, 9-7.

The second half saw the Panthers carry their momentum into a 2-1 lead in the 65th minute. Cavanagh fed Alex Mendez with a pass to the top of the box which Mendez scored in the left hand corner. DU would control the game from here as they limited the Tiger opportunities and maintained their one-goal advantage. Campbellsville would catch their break in the 86th minute as a corner kick resulted in a header that beat Orban and tied the game at 2-2.

The teams would carry this stalemate into the end of regulation and through both overtime periods as each defense held strong. The Panthers would head into penalty kicks as they looked to advance to the quarterfinals after an evenly matched game that saw DU hold a 25-22 edge in shots.

The DU and Campbellsville teams would trade goals through their first three kicks before Tiger keeper Sapena made a clutch save. This would give the Tigers a chance to win the game when their fifth player came to kick. Orban came up with the season-saving stop on Lindsay which gave DU the chance to take the lead. Orban then followed this with the game-winning save on Higdon to advance the Panthers to the quarterfinals. Craig McBride booted the decisive penalty kick for the Panthers before the stop on Higdon.

Head Coach Chris Hughes commented on the resiliency of his team and keeper Aaron Orban, "with the schedule we've had this year we've been challenged by some of the best teams in the nation and we've been challenged by our incredible conference, which has great teams all over that tried a little bit of everything on us. So we've been in those situations before where we have been down a goal and needed to find one. What this team did today, that is a sign of a champion. You have to trust each man to your left and right. That's what we did today and Aaron came up with the big save."

The Panthers (16-2-3) advance to play the winner of MidAmerica Nazarene University and Vanguard University tomorrow (Dec. 2) at 4 p.m.