The Bruins battled the DII Tusculum University Pioneers tonight at Alumni Stadium and the match ended in a chaotic 3-3 draw.
"What a great battle and I am proud of the boys for responding after a major shift," Head Coach Greg Fulton said. "We knew we needed to play smart against their athleticism and we did that really well for 75 minutes. It would have been easy to fold after giving up three quick goals but they responded well with a final push. We will learn and grow from this result as we enter the home stretch."
The match began and the Bruins could tell right away that the defense was going to have to be on their guard tonight against the PIoneers' speedy forwards. All four backline defenders played the full 90 minutes and did a great job at alleviating threats, especially in the first half. The Pioneers fired away eight shots in the first half but stayed scoreless. Goalkeeper Luke Provenzano made three saves to keep them off the board. The Bruins didn't get their first shot of the game until the 34th minute, and they made it count. Jackson Reinhard made a touch toward the endline and found the cutting Solomon Leaman who put it away to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. That was Leaman's third goal of the season. The Bruins fought and went into halftime up 1-0.
The second half was a lot of the same. The Pioneers created chances for themselves and the Bruins kept getting the ball out. The Bruins struggled to possess in the midfield, but that might be because the Bruins were missing three starting midfielders tonight. In one of the first movements forward in the half, the Bruins won a corner kick. Noah Burkett connected with Pedro Ribeiro at the far post, and Ribeiro headed it home. That was Ribeiro's first goal in a Bruin uniform. Now with a 2-0 lead and less than 20 minutes remaining, it felt like the Bruins had enough to get the win. Tusculum, however, kept their offensive foot on the and scored three goals in eight minutes to flip the matches script. The Bruins found themselves down 3-2 with five minutes remaining. Nearly right off the kickoff, the Bruins were given a free-kick in shooting distance for Noah Burkett. Burkett shot to the near post and buried it to tie it right back at 3-3. For the final four minutes, it was chaos at Alumni Stadium but neither team could find a game-winner, and the match ended in a 3-3 draw.
Solomon Leaman, Pedro Ribeiro, and Noah Burkett finished with a goal each, and Jackson Reinhard and Noah Burkett tallied an assist. Luke Provenzano finished the night with seven saves.
The Bruins are back on the pitch on Thursday as they travel to Brewton-Parker Christian University for a 4:00 p.m. kickoff in Mount Vernon, Georgia.
