Gurson’s OT Goal Gives Rampage 3-2 Win Over Heat

HARRISBURG, PA (December 3, 2016) – For the fourth time this year in seven games the Cedar Rapids Rampage surrendered the first two goals of the game and for the fourth time they rallied to come out on top. Gordy Gurson’s goal 26 seconds into overtime gave the Rampage a 3-2 win Saturday night at New Holland Arena in Harrisburg.

The travel-weary Rampage looked out of sync in the first half and Harrisburg scored in both quarters. Ricardo Carvalho and Stephen Basso scored for the Heat, who led 2-0 at the half.

From there the Rampage defense stiffened up and goalkeeper Brett Petricek made a number of acrobatic saves while the Cedar Rapids defenders came through with a number of sliding blocks.

Gurson finished off a long sequence of shots and rebounds with a bicycle kick goal that got the Rampage on the scoreboard and animated their play. The buzzing Rampage kept the Heat on their heels and Bobby Hurwitz tied the game, walloping a loose ball at the top of the box past Heat goalkeeper Hugo Silva.

The fourth quarter was scoreless with Cedar Rapids maintaining most of the possession. The Heat had three free kicks in the final 90 seconds, but could not generate any shots on target.

The suspense in sudden death overtime ended quickly when Silva misplayed a ball out of the corner and it squirted through to the front of the goal where Gurson pounced on it and slammed it into the empty net to give the Rampage their fourth straight victory.

Cedar Rapids improves to 5-2, while Harrisburg falls to 2-3.