Shirley, N.Y.- The Georgian Court University men's soccer squad, seeking its first triumph of the campaign, fell just short of completing the task Wednesday evening as the Lions dropped a 4-3 decision at Dowling College in non-conference play.

GCU sees its record dip to 0-3-2 while the Golden Lions evened its mark across the board at 2-2-2.

Dowling jumped out to an immediate 1-0 advantage just 4:38 into the affair after Mike Gronenthal (Jr.-Levittown, N.Y.) headed in a Phillip Svensson (Fr.-Falkenberg, Sweden) corner kick. Georgian Court evened the score at 1-1 at 11:50 when Michael Clarke (So.-Essex, UK) one-touched a Sebastian Gostynski (So.-Garfield, N.J.) feed into the left corner of the Dowling net.

Kevin Diaz (So.-Brentwood, N.Y.) provided a 2-1 lead for the Golden Lions (21:10) when he headed home a high cross off the foot of Raffaele Sorbara (Sr.-Lynbrook, N.Y.). The home team appeared to break the contest wide open in the second stanza after a second goal from Gronenthal (50;31) and one from Chris Posillico (Sr.-Deer Park, N.Y.) at 56:52 increased Dowling's lead to 4-1.

The visiting Lions proved its resiliency as Georgian Court started cutting the deficit, beginning with Clarke's second tally of the game (third of the season) at 62:11 to make the score 4-2. Garrett McVeigh (So.-Cherry Hill, N.J.) made Dowling anxious after he popped home his first goal of the year and inched GCU to within one with only 58 seconds remaining in regulation (89:02).

The Golden Lions owned a slight 17-11 lead in total shots and attempted two more corner kicks (4-2) than GCU.

Michael Friedl (Fr.) earned his first collegiate victory in the Dowling net after collecting two saves over 90:00. Rylan Gentil (Sr.-Poseyville, Ind.) saw his record slip to 0-3-2 after yielding four goals (four saves) in 66:24 of action in the GCU goal.

The Lions return home to host Nyack College Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference action.