ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Embry Riddle men's soccer team battled the Tritons of Eckerd College to a 1-1 draw on Saturday. The Eagles' record is now 2-3-2 while the Tritons' record is 5-1-2.
The first half of the game produced no goals for either team with only four shots on goal by the Eagles and one by the Tritons.
"It was one of our best overall performances of the year," said head coach Dave Gregson, "Our spacing was good, we were brave enough to play, created loads of good chances and on anther night could have had three or four goals."
Daniel Gylfason had an opportunity to score in the 34
th minute when he took the ball on a breakaway inside the box and went one-on-one with Eckerd goalkeeper, Alex Gott, who saved the shot.
Pierre Hertin also had a scoring opportunity in the 42
nd minute after he received a through ball from Gylfason and challenged Gott, who again, got hands on the shot to prevent an Eagle goal.
Richard Dearle was strong in defending the net in the second half with a diving save in the 45
th minute of the game. He remained calm during the Tritons' scoring opportunity in the 59
th minute and easily saved the header that was sent his way.
In the 76
th minute Eckerd's Jordan Lee dribbled the ball through a sea of Eagle defenders and maneuvered a shot past Dearle from the six-yard box to take the lead with a score of 1-0.
The Eagle's tied the game in the 85
th minute after
Joao Belmonte received a through ball from
Felix Moller at the top of the box, dribbled to the left corner and sent the ball past Gott, bringing the score to 1-1
Overtime resulted in a lot of back-and-forth action with neither team able to get past the opposing goalkeeper.
The 107
th minute marked a scoring opportunity for the Eagles when Belmonte went one-on-one with Gott in front of the net, however Gott managed to grab the ball just in time to save the shot, leaving the score 1-1 at the final whistle.
Dearle tallied ten saves on the night.
"We keep improving with each game," Gregson continued, "We have a week of training now to try and implement a few new ideas before the Tampa game."
The Eagles return to action Saturday, Oct. 1 when they take on Tampa at the Embry-Riddle Soccer Stadium at 7 p.m.
