American right back Charles Kazlauskas opened and closed the scoring as TOP Oss fought visitors FC Emmen to a thrilling 4-4 seesaw share on a rainy Friday night.

The home side threatened early when Revy Rosalia forced Emmen keeper Thomas Villadsen to tip over a deflected long range try.

In the 12th minute, Kazlauskas christened the score sheet with a splendid strike. Picked out on a surging run down the right by Bart van Hintum's long diagonal ball, the Wisconsin native cut past a defender to the inside and deposited a picturesque lefty curler inside the far post.

The visitors would draw level just past the half hour when Van Hintum misjudged a Sergio van Dijk flick-on, allowing Geoffrey Verweij to scoop it up on his way to the TOP area. The #11 shirt wiggled past Niek Ripson, then netminder Wilko de Vogt and finally Van Hintum again before slotting the equalizer.

Eric Quekel restored the home lead seven minutes later by latching onto a Leon van Dalen long ball up the middle and one-timing a fantastic high lob over Villadsen.

The TOP striker saw a header pushed over by Villadsen on the stroke of halftime, and five minutes out of intermission, Emmen knotted matters again. Roy Stroeve played Van Dijk into the area, then ran onto a return backheel to fire home.

As he had done earlier, Quekel put TOP back in front in the 62nd minute. Running onto a delicious flicked through ball from Davy Zafarin, the forward beat the onrushing Villadsen with a dink shot.

Emmen's Morten Friis hopped off the bench to score a quick fire double, giving the away side their first lead with 16 minutes to play. The Dane scored on a well-placed looping header in the 73rd minute, then seconds later, applied a near post touch to a Marcel Pannenkoek cross from the left.

Three minutes later, however, Kazlauskas would have the last laugh with his brace-maker. Van Hintum's long diagonal free kick sailed over everyone but the American, who casually rolled just beyond the goal line from a sharp angle to record his first two-goal game since he was with Young NEC Nijmegen in 2005.

Quekel was then sent off for a highly questionable second yellow for diving in the area - replays seemed to show he was clipped by Emmen defender Kevin Görtz - but TOP were not punished as Pannenkoek pushed a 16-meter effort wide with the final kick.

The men from Oss will next travel to Helmond Sport a week from Sunday.

Scoring
TOP - Charles Kazlauskas 2 (Bart van Hintum) 12'
EMM - Geoffrey Verweij 3 (Sergio van Dijk) 31'
TOP - Eric Quekel 8 (Leon van Dalen) 38'
EMM - Roy Stroeve 6 (Sergio van Dijk) 50'
TOP - Eric Quekel 9 62'
EMM - Morten Friis 5 (Geoffrey Verweij) 73'
EMM - Morten Friis 6 (Marcel Pannenkoek) 74'
TOP - Charles Kazlauskas 3 (Bart van Hintum) 77'

TOP - Wilko de Vogt; Charles Kazlauskas, Niek Ripson, Dirk Schoofs, Leon van Dalen (Dimitri Djollo 77'), Bart van Hintum, Mike Thijssen, Erik van der Ven (Wouter van den Herik 59'), Davy Zafarin, Revy Rosalia, Erik Quekel