KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College men's soccer team played to a hard-fought draw Saturday night at Art Keller Field, tying the Millikin University Big Blue, 1-1.
The draw moves the Red Men to 4-1-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and to 9-7-1 overall, while the Big Blue move to 3-2-1 and 8-5-1 overall.
"I think we were ready to play today, so a little frustrating we tied," said head coach
Steve Domin after the tie. "Having that much possession, great penetration left and right of the box, and not getting a few goals was mentally draining. We spent the days leading up guarding against a letdown after two or three really solid matches and with senior day emotions can drift to the future… Credit to Millikin, they have a couple great players who they build through and they play for restarts and throw-ins which is ultimately their bread and butter. We knew it and it was their main tool tonight… We are getting close to healthy. A few more ingredients and we will be a tough, tough team to beat."
Carthage opened the scoring early as their first true build up resulted in a penalty kick drawn by
Ivan Esquivel after he beat his defender and was taken down in the box.
Adrian Herrera hammered home the ensuing penalty kick in the second minute for the 1-0 lead and his fifth goal of the season, tying him for the team lead.
Moments later, Millikin evened the match as the Big Blue connected on a long throw in into the box, which was headed home in the ninth minute to even the match at 1-1.
Carthage had a number of other first half opportunities but the Red Men were unable to put away a goal that could have decided the match in regulation.
More chances arose for the Red Men in the second half but the Red Men were unable to find the finishing touch as all their shots were blocked, deflected or saved to force overtime.
Millikin nearly had the game won with a goal in the 88th minute, but an offside call against Millikin negated the goal and forced overtime.
Through the overtime period Millikin continued to pressure
Niko Mavrogiannis and the back line with six shots through the two golden goal periods to the Red Men's two, but Carthage was up to the task and earned the 1-1 draw.
For the match, the Red Men outshot Millikin 23-14 with both teams getting eight on target. Mavrogiannis made seven saves in net for first tie of the season to the Red Men.
Carthage will close out their regular season home schedule on Wednesday, October 24th when the Red Men host rival Wheaton College in a huge CCIW matchup. Wednesday's game is set to kick at 7:30 p.m. from Art Keller Field.
