DAHLONEGA, Ga. - It was a dramatic night for the No. 10 Columbus State University women's soccer team as Maddy Peterson found the golden goal in the 104th minute to lift the Cougars to a 3-2 win over the University of North Georgia on Wednesday.

After earning a corner kick, Maria Kilset played a ball into the box where the graduate senior scored her second goal of the match to give the Cougars the double-overtime victory.

Columbus State (13-1-1, 7-0-0 PBC) clinched at least a share of the Peach Belt Conference regular-season championship with the victory.

"What a win for this team," stated head coach Jay Entlich. "It was a rollercoaster of a night, and this outcome could've gone either way. I'm just glad we found the game-winner, and I'm super proud it came from a team leader like Petey (Peterson)." 

Both teams had a flair for the dramatics in the crucial PBC match. It was scoreless up until the final seconds of the first half when Megan Dumond put North Georgia (8-3-1, 5-2-0) in front after the CSU's backline failed to clear a loose ball in the 45th minute.  

The lead didn't last long though, as Peterson and the Cougars went on the attack. With less than a tenth of a second on the clock, Peterson fired a shot into the back of the net to tie the match. 

After halftime, CSU went ahead 2-1 in the 56th minute when Emma Beddow sent a perfect ball into the box for Anna Grady, who tapped it home for her fourth goal of the year.

The Cougars were less than three minutes from a win until the Nighthawks evened the score in the 88th minute. A long ball from Skyla Abbot set up Cat Watry for the goal. 

CSU and UNG each had one shot in the first 10-minute overtime before Peterson's game-winner in the 104th minute.

Sara Halilhodzic (8-0-1) grabbed the win in net after playing the first half and the 14 minutes of overtime.

UP NEXT
Columbus State returns home to host Georgia Southwestern University at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Walden Soccer Complex. It's CSU's Homecoming with admission being free to the public. The Cougar seniors will also be honored after the match.

COUGAR NOTES
• It's the first OT win for the Cougars since Sept. 30, 2017. CSU was 0-2-5 over the previous seven overtime decisions
• It's the fourth multi-goal for Peterson in her career. She becomes the fourth different Cougar to do so this season
• It's just the second time this season that CSU was outshot (15-8). The eight shots by the Cougars also snapped CSU's 23 match streak of 10 or more 
• It was just the second time this season that UNG allowed two or more goals in match
• North Georgia has now lost back-to-back matches at home for the first time since 2008
• The Cougars remain unbeaten in Dahlonega, moving to 8-0-1 all-time. Overall, CSU now leads the all-time series 20-5-1