KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's soccer team earned a hard-fought draw Wednesday night, tying the #12 North Park University Vikings in double overtime, 2-2.
"This game reminded me of CCIW games of old," said head coach
Steve Domin. "Great teams, on any night, with a tidal wave of emotion. Frankly we started slow and gifted them a turnover to a well placed first shot on goal for them… North Park is a terrific team. They have high octane and some unique reach for our level. More or less, tonight was two different styles out there and you could see when one won out over another."
The draw moves the Red Men to 7-5-2 and 1-1-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Vikings go to 10-1-1 and 5-0-1 in the league.
A back and forth match saw Carthage and NPU nearly even in shots for the match with 15 for the Vikings and 14 for Red Men, with both teams putting four on target.
Carthage fell behind early in the 15th minute but responded with a strong attack that was rewarded when
Ivan Esquivel was dragged down in the box to give the Red Men a penalty kick, which
Adrian Herrera buried to tie the game at 1-1 in the 27th minute.
The Red Men took their first lead in the match just two minutes into the second half, as
Jerry Patino ripped a free kick from 25 yards out that snuck under a jumping wall and inside the near post, past a diving Mathias Stulen to take a 2-1 lead.
Next, North Park would respond off a set piece deep in the Red Men's end that following a failed clearance, Vikings' defender Jason Gonzalez netted inside the back post.
"Although we are disappointed with the result, we will take a tie right now, especially with as injured as we are," said the head coach. "We have been on the wrong side of a handful of games we dominated but didn't earn a result. Today we probably only played about 45 minutes of Carthage Soccer, and the other half we absorb being stretched by a team with pace… The fouling was an issue for us today, and we really gave North Park a number of midfield challenges yielding long serves we had to deal with. They get lots of shots more or less from serving so the stats sometimes don't reflect the actual game."
Tied at 2-2 in the first overtime frame, Carthage nearly netted the game winner off a Jamie Tasuend corner that found the head of defensive replacement
Nicholas Messineo inside the six, however his strike was saved by Stulen from point blank.
The Red Men also had a great opportunity in the second overtime as a build up set
Alexis Garcia up at the top of the 18-yard box but his shot curled wide.
"The match was without fireworks as the chances increased late. I thought we were going to sneak in a couple at the end. Nick Messineo had a nice finish to the game."
Niko Mavrogiannis and Stulen Mathias earned the draws in goal for the Red Men and Vikings respectively, each making two saves in the match.
Next up for the Red Men, Carthage will head south with the Lady Reds for a CCIW doubleheader at Millikin University in Decatur on Saturday, October 14th. The Lady Reds will open the day at 3:30 p.m. and the Red Men will play 30 minutes following around 6:00 p.m.
