Without their top offensive threat, it seemed at the onset that it would be a long day for Hornet men’s soccer against San Jose State.

Senior forward Patrick Nelle was out with a concussion and was not available to play and with an already sputtering offense, it seemed as if the scoring chances would be that much more scarce for Sac State on Friday afternoon at Hornet Field.

The Hornets stepped up their offense, though, and beat the defending Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champions with an uncharacteristic offensive outburst, winning the see-saw, 4-3 overtime thriller by the way of sophomore midfielder Ryan Rhoads’ game-winning golden goal.

To make up for the loss of Nelle, Rhoads and junior midfielder Ricky Rodriguez contributed a pair of goals each to spark the Hornets, who had to come from behind three times throughout the match just to force overtime.

The Spartans struck first, when in the 17th minute, Tim McKinney scored off a deflection from a corner kick and snuck the ball into the lower left corner of the goal.

Sac State came right back 13 minutes later to tie the game up.

In their best series of play the entire match, junior midfielder Marco Ramirez advanced the ball downfield where he shot and narrowly missed a goal against San Jose State’s goalkeeper, Douglas Brent. However, Rodriguez was right there to tap the deflection into the open net.

“I felt good all day and was just in the right place at the right time; granted, I scored a couple times, but this was a team effort,” said Rodriguez, who ended up with two goals and two assists.

The tie didn’t last long, though, as the Spartans took the lead once again with a clean goal, just two minutes later.

Eric Rodriguez sent a cross in to McKinney, who fed Johnny Gonzalez with a soft back-pass, and Gonzalez tapped in the easy shot to beat Sac State goalkeeper Matt McDougall.

The second half of play was no different, as the offensive onslaught continued for both teams.

Faced with a 2-1 deficit, Rhoads brought the Hornets back to tie the game only two minutes into the second half.

Rodriguez stole the ball at midfield and assisted a streaking Rhoads, who deposited the ball into the low far post.

The back-and-forth battle continued deep into the match, as San Jose State came up with the next goal, in the 57th minute, to take a 3-2 lead; Marvin Sorto sent a corner kick into the penalty kick area, and Richard Halvorsen was able to sneak the loose ball past McDougall.

Later, both Rodriguez and Rhoads played pivotal roles to allow the Hornets to come from behind, this time to tie the game at 3 with only seven minutes left to play.

Rhoads maneuvered his way through the defense into the Spartan’s penalty box, where he was fouled setting the stage for Rodriguez who was chosen to take the penalty kick.

Brent guessed wrong and Rodriguez sent the ball to the lower right of the goal, tying the score at 3.

“After a tough weekend, today went really well; we showed a lot of character in coming back from a goal down three times to tie the score and Rhoads and Rodriguez gave us tremendous games,” head coach Michael Linenberger said.

That wasn’t all for the Hornets, though, as the game went into overtime.

Rodriguez once again took the ball down the field, splitting defenders, and found an open Rhoads who was sprinting to the net; Rhoads sent the ball past a diving Brent, giving the Hornets the 4-3, overtime win.

“Rodriguez had a nice run at the goal, gave me the pass, and I finished it,” said Rhoads of the game-winner.

“It’s nice to get the win against the defending champs and hopefully we’ll get more conference wins like this.”

Sac State is still undefeated at home, going 2-0-1.

After winning the Mountain Pacific just last year, San Jose State has followed it up with just one win thus far.

“We had too many key players in the back all the time and a lot of our players had just horrible games,” Spartans head coach Gary St. Clair said. “It’s terrible to score three goals and lose and now we’re just a completely different team than last year; it’s good for our opponents, though.”

Sac State is on the road for their next game, facing off against No. 5 New Mexico.

The Hornets play their next home game against San Diego State on Oct. 15 at 4 p.m.