Courtesy of UofRAthletics.com
PITTSBURGH, PA – The University of Rochester men’s soccer team pushed its unbeaten streak to six matches after drawing even with host Carnegie Mellon 1-1 on Sunday afternoon at the CMU Soccer Field.
Rochester (11-2-3, 4-1-1 UAA) is now in solo second place in the UAA standings after Chicago won over Brandeis on Sunday to break a three way tie among those three teams. The draw moves Carnegie Mellon to 10-3-3 and 2-2-2 in the conference.
The Tartans would strike first on Sunday, ending UR goalie Redd Brown‘s long scoreless streak that stretched over five games. At 31:31, CMU’s Ryan Stinebaugh beat a Yellowjacket defender and tapped in a loose ball after the initial shot by Cooper Tubiana struck the underside of the crossbar and bounded back into the field.
Rochester’s first solid scoring opportunities off back-to-back corner kicks in the 53rd minute by Stefan Sarkovich. The initial shot by Lucas Loecher was punched away by CMU goalie Alec Lam for the first corner attempt. On that try, Lam did a nice job to punch a dangerous ball out of the scoring area. The second attempt saw the ball bound out to Bryce Ikeda whose hard shot went just high of the net on the right side.
The Yellowjackets evened the score at 1-1 at 76:51 when Josh Cooley converted a endline pass from teammate Alex Di Perna for his second goal of the season. Di Perna set up the play with a service from the right sideline to the near post where Cooley took the shot in traffic and beat Lam just inside the post.
Early in the first overtime session, the Tartans nearly had a highlight reel goal for the game-winner, but after a punch save on a free kick from Brown, CMU’s Zack Mascipinto tried a bicycle kick that sailed just high the UR net, keeping the game scoreless. In the 99th minute, Masciopinto again had another strong chance, heading a long cross right on goal, but Brown was again there to make the save.
Overall in the contest, the Yellowjacket senior goalie made four saves.
After Carnegie Mellon handled most of the play in the first OT, Rochester maintained possession for most of the second extra session. Ikeda had a shot from just inside the box in the 106th minute that sailed wide, and in the closing seconds, Cooley took an attempt that was blocked away for a corner, but time ran out before the play could get set up, leading to the 1-1 draw.
Rochester finishes the regular season next Saturday at Emory University for an 11 am kick-off.
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