FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Florida Gulf Coast University men's soccer team pushed its unbeaten streak to five after earning a 1-1 draw against Bellarmine University Saturday at Pickering Field.
The Eagles (3-2-4, 2-0-2 ASUN) are currently second in league action and the Knights are in fifth.
Jaffer Murphy delivered his first goal of the season in the 81
st minute to keep the Eagles alive in the ASUN matchup.
"The game came alive in the second half and we went on the front foot to win the game, but we took too long and we conceded early in the second half to dig ourselves a hole," head coach
Jesse Cormier said. "I liked our resilience and ability to fight back and get the point, but we need to be more cohesively dynamic in the final third."
Overall, FGCU outshot the Knights (2-2-6, 1-1-2 ASUN) 12-3 while having a whopping six shots on goal to their one. Junior goalkeeper Wyatt Kistner made his way back between the pipes after missing the last two games and only conceded one goal.
In the first half,
Niall Reid-Stephen attempted to put the Eagles on the scoreboard at 8:17 but his shot landed just wide. From there defense ruled as both teams fired off two shots each but not would connect and the half ended scoreless.
Bellarmine started the second half with a bang, as Brendan Schoemehl scored off a corner kick from Rahim Shalash to give the Knights a 1-0 lead at 46:43. The Eagles were given a chance in the 57
th minute to even the game with a penalty kick but BU's goalkeeper, Mathew Brozovick corralled
Gustavo Ferrari's shot.
The Green & Blue kept applying pressure and they were rewarded as
Jaffer Murphy buried the ball in the bottom side of the net with less than nine minutes left on the clock. Reid-Stephen took the team lead in assists with his third helper of the season on the equalizer.
The Eagles relentlessly searched for the go-ahead goal with Murphy firing off two shots and
Job Choute having the last two shots of the game but none would connect as both teams received one point after the final whistle.
The Eagles will now head to North Carolina to battle No. 13 in the US Coaches poll and No. 10 in the RPI Rankings and 2022 NCAA first-round participant the University of North Carolina Tuesday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Dorrance Field and fans can catch all the action live on the ACC Network.
