MONMOUTH – Given that the MVC rivals had battled to ties in both of their regular-season meetings, Tuesday’s Western Class C prelim between No. 10 Winthrop and No. 7 Monmouth was destined to go to overtime.

Yet no one, except perhaps Monmouth coach Gary Trafton, could have foreseen who would decide their third contest.

Sophomore Tyler Somerville, moved from fullback to forward for the game, scored the game-winner less than three minutes into the extra session to give Monmouth a 3-2 win and a spot in Friday’s quarterfinal against No. 2 Mt. Abram.

Somerville was in the right place at the right time when teammate Sean Holbrook and Winthrop goalie Mike Gingras collided going after a long pass near the top of the box.

“Our guy ran through trying to push the ball in and the goalie dropped and I jumped right over,” Somerville said. “The ball just popped up and dropped right behind the goalie and I ran over and put it in.”

“That’s the first time he’s played forward this year,” Trafton said. “I knew he was aggressive, so I figured what have we got to lose. He made some things happen today.”

Winthrop coach Lonney Steeves argued the goal with officials, saying the play was offsides.

“The ball was hit through, and when it was touched, the guy was offsides and (Winthrop fullback) Max Beauregard recovered back to make the play. I thought there was a touch,” Steeves said. “It’s disappointing. We played awfully well. You can’t blame it on the officials.”

Monmouth came out the aggressor in the first half, but Winthrop turned up the pressure in the second. The two constants were the physical play and both teams’ ability to bounce back quickly after falling behind.

Monmouth took the initial lead with 11:38 left in the first half as the Mustangs (6-6-3) kept plugging away in front of the goal, heading the ball a couple of times off a corner kick before Andy Bellmore headed it in on the third try.

Winthrop’s Andy Pellott knotted it up again just 58 seconds later, booting a direct free kick inside the near post and to the right of Monmouth keeper Kyle Pelletier (eight saves). The two teams went into the intermission tied.

Winthrop (4-6-5) picked up its intensity in the second half but didn’t have a lot of shots to show for it for the first 20 minutes.

The Ramblers finally took the lead when speedy sophomore Dave Zimmerman dribbled the ball into the left corner, waited for the Mustang defense to react to him, then sent a perfect crossing pass to Jason Allen over the middle.

Allen beat the lone Mustang defender to the pass and redirected it to Pelletier’s left to give the Ramblers a 2-1 lead with 11:41 left.

“Zimmerman took the ball to the corner beautifully, drew the guy in with his dribble and then laid the ball right across the middle. I mean, that was how you draw em up,” Steeves said.

“He laid it right across, and Jason was right there and he did the right thing of not trying it hard and just put it in the back of the net.”

Monmouth bounced right back just under three minutes later when Shane Kibler took a pass from Holbrook and booted it to the right of Gingras (12 saves) to tie it with 9:08 left in the game.