What do you do when you are in desperate need of an overtime goal? Why not pass to a guy who scored a sudden death winner the previous week? That’s what the Massachusetts men’s soccer team (3-4) did yesterday and it worked wonders.

Facing a golden-goal situation with two minutes remaining in overtime, tied 2-2 with New Hampshire (1-2-3), UMass captain Oral Bullen found Rob Charest, who came through for the Minutemen with his second goal of the game.

Bullen forced a Wildcat turnover at midfield and drove a breakaway pass towards the UNH net, where Charest chased it down and put it away at 98:02. The decisive goal was Charest’s second of the year. His first came in the 20th minute of overtime against Hartford on Sept. 14.

“It’s kind of hard to believe,” Charest said. “Coach was actually going to take me out on the next whistle, but I managed to get in a good scoring chance and end the game before he could.”

The win wraps up a five-game home stand in which the Minutemen played to a 3-2 record and improved their ratio of goals scored at home compared to goals scored on the road, to 12:2.

With the win, UMass coach Sam Koch pulls within one victory of becoming a 150 game winner on the Massachusetts bench.

Ross Fishbain gave UNH the game’s first lead with an acrobatic goal at 11:51. Matt Bow set up the play by driving a corner kick to the near post. UMass goalie Colin Burns charged out of the net to intercept the pass, but was beaten to the ball by Fishbain, who bicycle-kicked the ball into the goal.

Roughly 10 minutes later, Bullen received a touch-pass from Ralph Pace from 20 yards out. He fired a shot to the top left corner of the goal to pull Massachusetts even. The score stood at one goal apiece at the break.

Commencement of the second half signaled the beginning of 10 minutes of stagnant play as the teams battled for position at midfield. Play went back-and-forth without either team gaining a decisive advantage, until a series of quick Wildcat passes at centerfield caused confusion among the Minutemen ranks and set up a Bryan Stewart goal. The Massachusetts defense scrambled to get into position but a well-placed pass by Brian Levey found its way into the offensive zone. The ball was chased down by Stewart and shot into the net at 55:15, putting the Wildcats back on top, 2-1.

“Defense was an issue, again we let up some soft goals,” Koch said. “We still need to tighten up on the ball. We’re certainly getting there, but it’s taking longer than we expected.”

The UNH lead was short lived however, because Charest recorded his first goal at 70:15. A crossing pass from Matty LeMire to Tyler Pagano led to a Pagano outside shot, which was deflected into the net by Charest. Pagano booted his initial shot from 20-yards out and both he and LeMire were credited with assists.

The rest of regulation continued without incident, setting the stage for the golden goal. In extra time, the Maroon and White kept the ball in its offensive zone for almost the entire 10 minutes, out shooting the Wildcats 3-0 and defeating UNH to improve to 26-11-3 all-time against New Hampshire.

For a relatively high scoring game, neither goalie was forced to make many saves. Out of 10 New Hampshire shots, only four made it on net, two of which were successfully saved by Burns. Massachusetts shot the ball 18 times and Brian Levey recorded five saves.

“We definitely created chances, that’s not our problem,” Koch said. “We have plenty of offensive ability and are always a threat to score, but that’s not what we’re stressing. We need to find a way to combine our offensive strengths with a sound defense.”

UNH faltered in the second half, something it had not done thus far. Before facing the Minutemen, New Hampshire had out-shot foes 47-36 and after halftime they had outscored opponents 4-1.

The largest concern for Massachusetts entering yesterday’s game was filling the void left by junior defender Tim Kitchell, who was issued a red card in Sunday’s 3-1 loss to Harvard, and consequently forced to sit out the following game. Massachusetts addressed this issue by attacking the ball at midfield and pressuring UNH on offense. This strategy was intended to take pressure off the UMass defense and put it on the Wildcats.

“You just have to try some different things and find out what works,” Koch said. “This is a very young team but we have some time before [Boston University] to work out some of the kinks.”

Massachusetts will travel to BU on Sept. 28, to kick off a road trip that will keep the Minutemen away from Rudd Field until Oct. 15.