It was 110 minutes of intense soccer as the Bruins men's soccer team battled to a 2-2 draw against Upstate soccer giant, Furman University. Tuesday night's match was the first regular-season meeting against a NCAA DI opponent for the men's soccer team.
"This was a great chance for us to have a game against a DI program that a lot of players don't normally get to experience," said Coach Greg Fulton. "We've grown through this game in the 110 minutes that we played, and we're going to take that momentum and carry it forward. I think guys have the confidence now that some may have been lacking. This is an experience we can't replace."
It was a quick start to the match as both teams looked to gain control in the opening minutes. The Bruins would get a couple good looks but it was a through ball by Dylan Lane to Josh Hosie of the Paladins who would send it top corner to get the first goal of the game. The Paladins would look to increase their lead, but Bruins goalkeeper Chris Monczekwski made several huge saves to keep the game at 1-0.
The Bruins would counter in the 18th minute to tie the game 1-1. Peter Waddy passed the ball on the outside to Victor Oladipo who sent the ball into the back of the net.
"That counter attack goal to respond to their early goal changed the game for us," said Fulton. "At that point in the game, we kept getting turnovers, and when our team went down the field fluidly and every pass was the right one and then to finish it. That moment for me was huge."
The first half ended at one goal apiece with the Paladins out shooting the Bruins 13 to 3.
The Paladins came out firing at the start of the 2nd half, but the game would change for the Bruins in the 74th minute when Mario Figueroa would steal a pass and go racing down the pitch to go 1v1 and score to give the Bruins the 2-1 lead. They would hold on to the 2-1 lead until the 82nd minute when the ball would get jumbled in traffic in front of the net and would eventually be headed in by Furman's Jake Raine.
Regulation time would end with the two sides knotted at two. The Bruins and Paladins would play through the first overtime period still tied with two goals and in the second overtime the Bruins would push hard in the final minutes putting several shots towards the goal, but would ultimately end up tying the Paladins 2-2 at Stone Stadium.
"We wanted to compete and I thought we could have won that game ten times over in the dying minutes," said Fulton. "We look forward from here with the growth from playing a historied DI program that produces national team players and professional players. We were able to grow from this game. We started small and ended big."
The Bruins are back home on Friday to take on Warren Wilson at 7 p.m. at Alumni Stadium.
