(photo of Luca Lippert courtesy of Joe Poellot/UHH)

HILO, Hawai`i—Upset minded UH Hilo put visiting Seattle Pacific on notice with a 2-0 halftime lead, but the No. 17 Falcons rallied with a pair of goals in the second half and the game winner by Alex Mejia in overtime to take a 3-2 victory on Wednesday afternoon at Hall Stadium.

Seattle Pacific improved to 4-1 on the season while the Vulcans fell to 1-2.

Mejia scored the clincher by dribbling down the left side of the field with plenty of company. With a trio of defenders on him, he juked one and then fired a shot through two others that also got past a diving Michael Harre in the Vulcan goal, sending the Falcons into celebration.

Mejia's shot ended an afternoon that had plenty of action prior to his match winner.

Seattle Pacific controlled the ball and the pace in the early going. The first 20 minutes of the match were played on the Vulcan defensive end of the field. The Falcons moved the ball and had a couple of shots, one by Titus Grant that UHH keeper Harre had to make a diving block on.

But the pace of the match changed dramatically moments later.

UH Hilo worked the ball to the other end of the field and suddenly, after a slick pass by Henrique Castilho to Kalei Tolentino-Perry at the top of the box, the Vulcans found the net. Tolentino-Perry sent a rocket over the top of Falcon keeper Lars Helleren to give the home team a score on their first shot of the day.

That goal came in the 22^nd minute. Four minutes later, the Vulcans scored again, this time with Luca Lippert taking a pass from Andrew Rehedul from across the lower box. It was an easy push in for Lippert to make the count stunningly 2-0.

Both teams had a few more opportunities before the break, but there weren't any more scores. SPU had seven shots in the first half, three saved by Harre. The Vulcans had four shots, two that had to be saved.

The script flipped in the second half. Seattle Pacific went on the offensive again and found the net in the 58^th minute when Alden Massey launched a shot through a scrum of players into the lower left-hand corner of the goal. Less than three minutes, Travis Swallow side kicked a shot over two defenders into the goal, and all of a sudden it was 2-2.

That's how the score would stay until the end of 90 minutes, sending the match into overtime.

The Falcons had a shot early in extra time when Mejia sent a shot from the left side that Harre stopped. But Mejia made good on his second opportunity, knocking home his fifth score in five matches.

UH Hilo will be back home on Sunday (11 am) to face another team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western Washington. The Falcons move on to Oahu to take on Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade.