BILLINGS, Mont. – Coming up short in the final game of the regular season, the Montana State University Billings Yellowjackets fell 4-1 to Seattle Pacific University at Yellowjacket Field Thursday afternoon in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest.
 
Shantik Bedrosian scored in the first half for MSUB, but the Falcons capitalized on their scoring chances and held on to a 4-1 lead most of the second half.
 
MSU Billings (8-9-2, 5-6-1 GNAC) missed its chance to close out the fall with a winning record and SPU spoiled MSUB'd opportunity for a season series sweep between the two sides.
 
"We were at 8-5-2 earlier this fall and in a good position but some injuries and suspensions to key players made a big difference in our performance and really hurt us," reflected MSUB head coach Thomas Chameraud. "As of right now it is a disappointment because I think we could have done better, but that's soccer. We'll take some time and look at all the positives from this year in the off-season and try to get better."
 
SPU's Mario Vukic took a cross from the corner from Alden Massey and drilled a shot past Jessy Martin to the lower left corner to make it 1-0 in the 18^th minute. The Yellowjackets countered just one minute, six seconds later. Brady Tesch crossed the ball to the center of the box and Shantik Bedrosian finished it off for his fourth goal of the season.
 
The Falcons went ahead for the last time in the 24^th minute. Jake Williams made a pass from the left corner to Alden Massey in the middle and Massey made no mistake to make it 2-1. Just after halftime, Alex Mejia scored the first of his two goals when he put away a close range shot from the left post on a short pass from Sam Malloch. Mejia then buried MSUB's hopes for a comeback when he scored on a nifty one-touch passing play off Massey and Vukic's assists.
 
The Yellowjackets will graduate three seniors including Liam Knox, Ignacio Crespo, and Christian Thode. All three contributed meaningful minutes Thursday afternoon in Billings.
 
"Christian, Liam, and Nacho brought a lot of minutes for us this year so we are definitely going to miss them," Chameraud said. "We'll try to get players next year to fill those roles but I appreciate what they did for our program."
 
The Falcons narrowly outshot the 'Jackets 10-8. MSUB earned four corner kicks and allowed two to SPU. Lars Helleren played the first 80 minutes at goalkeeper for SPU to collect the win. Helleren made three saves. Jessy Martin played 90 minutes and made two saves to take the loss in goal for MSUB.
 
The Yellowjackets finished one win better than a year ago both in the conference standings and overall with eight total victories.  
 
THE BUZZ: Brady Tesch was named St. Vincent Healthcare player of the game after notching an assist in 90 minutes played for MSUB.