Eastern Oregon head coach Zach Mills gestures during Friday's match against Embry-Riddle. (Ronald Bond, The Observer)

Eastern Oregon was in control and seemed well on its way to victory in its home opener.

“We did really well, honestly. We controlled the game. We played our game. It was nice. It was beautiful,” Mountaineers’ head coach Zach Mills said.

Alex Gutierrez had scored on a breakaway 74 seconds into the match. Alexander Zuluaga had given Eastern a 2-0 lead early in the second half. Goalkeeper Max Rose had locked down the net with a flurry of saves.

But with about 15 minutes to play in regulation, the tables turned — and at times felt out of the Mountaineers’ control — and before the night was over, EOU walked off the Community Stadium field with a stunning 3-2 overtime loss to Embry-Riddle (Arizona) Friday night.

“Unfortunately the result didn’t go our way, but that’s just the game of futbol,” Gutierrez said. “Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t.”

A foul call just outside the box set Simon Jensen of Embry-Riddle up for a 19-yard free kick, which he hit home to get the Eagles on the board in the 76th minute. But perhaps the real game changer was when Calvin Mitchell was charged with a second yellow card on what EOU felt was a questionable call in the 87th minute. The second yellow forced Mitchell off the field and left EOU a man down the remainder of the match.

“I think even the other team felt like calls were weird either way,” Mills said. “It did feel like there were some things that, honestly, I’m confused about it, and I would like to see the video.”

ERAU took advantage a minute later when Mason Laaksonen scored in the 88th minute on a bounding ball that found the net and forced the match to overtime.

“We had some calls that unfortunately on one day go one way and on another day go the other,” Mills said.

In the first extra session, both teams had early opportunities — Eastern’s best on a centering pass by Carlos Solorio that skated through the goal box untouched. ERAU ended up with the golden goal as the first-overtime horn sounded when a free kick played into the box pinballed around before Lucas Garcia Bustillo tapped home the winner and stunned the Mountaineers.

“They felt kind of cheated out of that a little bit, but the other team played hard,” Mills said.

Gutierrez gave the Mountaineers the quick lead when he stole a crossing pass, broke free from ERAU keeper Alastair Stark — who had come out to make a play on the ball — and chased the loose ball down the field to tap it in for a 1-0 edge.

The lead held and was extended to 2-0 when Zuluaga scored in front of the net off a pass from Jack Rose in the 58th minute.

The tenor on the pitch changed shortly after. Eastern was dogged with yellow cards in the final 27 minutes of regulation, collecting four in that span — and six in the match — to just one for ERAU despite both teams playing what appeared to be an evenly physical brand of soccer. The foul count showed as much — ERAU was called for 25, EOU for 21.

“From the first five minutes you could tell it was going to be a physical game. We’ve played them before. They know how we play, we know how they play,” Gutierrez said.

Embry-Riddle was the aggressor on the stat sheet, totaling 19 shots, and 12 on goal, to 14 shots and six on goal for EOU. Rose, in just his second start at keeper for EOU, had eight saves.

“Max came up huge for us. I was really excited about that. He did really well back there,” Mills said.

The Mountaineers (1-1-0 overall) begin a three-game California road trip today at Marymount California.