Arne Feick scored the winning penalty to send Heidenheim into the third round at the expense of 10-man Sandhausen.
Both teams made several changes for this game. Heidenheim brought in Kevin Müller, Marcel Titsch-Rivero, Ben Halloran and Adriano Grimaldi for Jan Zimmermann, Norman Theuerkauf, Marc Schnatterer and Andreas Voglsammer.
Sandhausen, on the other hand, replaced Stefan Kulovits, Andrew Wooten, Jakub Kosecki, Nico Hammann and Ranislav Jovanovic out for Philipp Klingmann, Damian Roßbach, Moritz Kuhn, Marco Thiede and Aziz Bouhaddouz.
Stale first-half
The first half was a tough watch for the 2000-odd fans in the ground, with no team keen to commit too early or tire themselves out. Kevin Kraus and Zillner had the only real chances of note, though their efforts went narrowly past the post.
The best moment of the half fell to the visitors, who were looking rather dangerous with Grimaldi's height up-front. A corner kick was met by Mathias Wittek five yards out, and he powered the ball past Marco Knaller into the back of the net. His joy was short-lived, however, as Wolfgang Stark ruled it out for a foul on the home stopper.
Penalty and red card drama
The most dramatic moment of the match came early on in the second half. Florian Hübner hauled down Adriano Grimaldi when he was the last man and left Wolfgang Stark with no choice but to send him off. Robert Leipertz stepped up and had his penalty well-saved by Knaller, who was proving a tough nut to crack.
Depsite their best efforts, Heidenheim couldn't find a way past a staunch defensive effort and were thwarted by Knaller when they did. The game went to extra-time and neither side could find the net, so a penalty shoot-out wass needed to decide the winner.
Even though Knaller saved a penalty in the shoot-out, both Bouhaddouz and Leart Paqarada both missed. That left Arne Feick to score the winnng penalty and book Heidenheim's place in the third round.