MARIETTA, Ga. --- The No. 18 Life University men's soccer team played a game that was as tight as would be expected against another top 20 team, tying No. 15 William Carey 2-2 Friday night at Lupo Family Field.
Life U (7-0-1, 1-0-1 SSAC) maintains the perfect "0" in the loss column with the tie, while William Carey (5-1-2, 1-0-1 SSAC) continues their traditional excellence. The stats played out rather closely between the teams, the Crusaders taking more shots at 21-13, while the Running Eagles led in saves 8-4 and corner kicks 6-5. Life U were on the receiving end of the referee's call more often than not, leading in fouls 19-12 and cards 4-2.
Excellent defense on both sides of the field had it looking like the team's would enter the halftime break with a 0-0 tie. In the 32nd minute, Life U found themselves in great position after a Crusaders mistake set
Danny DeLorijn up with a penalty kick. DeLorijn capitalized on the opportunity, giving the Running Eagles a 1-0 lead that they would take into the break.
The Crusaders quickly put pressure on the Running Eagles' defense in the second half, but
Luka Zakarija continued to come up strong earning saves. 21 minutes into the second half, William Carey finally got on the board, knotting the game up at 1-1. The team's kept pressing the attack, but gritty defensive efforts had the game appearing to be on its way to a 1-1 tie. The fans were in for some fireworks in the final four minutes of play, William Carey taking a 2-1 lead on a solo goal before
Luciano Diaz pulled the game back to a tie after scoring on a pass from
Matteo Olivotto less than 40 seconds later. William Carey got off two more shots over the final minutes of the game, but the contest came to a 2-2 close.
Head coach
Alex Pama loved the atmosphere and high level collegiate soccer that was put on display tonight. "I thought that a tie was the deserving result from two excellent teams. Tonight's game had the atmosphere of a national tournament game. A huge thank you to all the fans at the game tonight that helped create such an awesome environment." Pama finished, looking forward to Sundays tilt, "Now, we turn towards preparing for out game against Mobile Sunday."
The Running Eagles stay home, hosting the current No. 1 team in the NAIA, Mobile, Sunday at 3:30 PM.
