Men's Soccer: WVU Battles to Draw Against Irish
October 01, 2005 10:50 PM | General
October 1, 2005
 |
||
| Smith |
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The West Virginia University men’s soccer team scored two goals in the last 10 minutes of regulation to earn a 3-3 draw against Notre Dame on Saturday night in South Bend, Ind.
The Mountaineers (6-4-1, 2-2-1 BIG EAST) used two goals from forward Jarrod Smith against Notre Dame (6-3-1, 2-2-1 BIG EAST) in the last six minutes of the match to come away with a promising draw.
“I thought it would be tough to get the tying goal after Notre Dame went ahead 3-2, but we were able to pull it off,” said head coach Mike Seabolt. “Getting out of Notre Dame with a tie was a big result for us.”
The Irish jumped out to an early lead in the sixth minute when sophomore Joe Lapira struck a volley past WVU goalkeeper Nick Noble off of a pass from John Stevens.
In the 22nd minute the Mountaineers were able to even the score when Geoff Cameron sent a ball to freshman forward Zak Boggs who headed in his fourth goal of the season. The assist was the first of Cameron’s career.
WVU was forced to play catch-up once again after Lapira dished the ball to Justing McGeeney in the 47th minute and the junior forward beat his defender on the left side to net a goal and make the score 2-1.
The half ended with the Mountaineers trailing by a goal and stayed that way until late in the match when Smith came up with the equalizer. In the 85th minute West Virginia was awarded a corner kick and Andy Wright was able to get the ball to the Havelock, New Zealand, native, who tallied his fifth goal of the season.
The Irish were able to come up with a quick counterstrike in the 87th minute off of a reset play. Junior Nate Norman vollied in his third goal of the season off of an assist from Lapira and Ian Etherington.
West Virginia would refuse to fall below the .500 mark again in the conference as Smith provided some last minute heroics to force overtime only 27 seconds after Notre Dame’s goal. Throw in specialist Pat Carroll launched one of his patented long balls in to Smith who collected it and drove in a shot past goalkeeper Chris Cahill.
After an action packed second half both teams were unable to break the deadlock on the score board in extra time and the match ended as a tie. It marks the first tie for WVU since Oct. 30, 2004, when the Mountaineers ended in a 0-0 tie against Rutgers in Morgantown.
The last time the Mountaineers played in a match in which both teams scored at least three goals was on Oct. 21 when they tied Pitt 3-3 in Morgantown.
Although Notre Dame out-shot West Virginia 27-18 the Mountaineers ended up with nine shots on goal compared to eight for the Irish.
Both Noble and Calhill recorded five saves in 110 minutes of play, while allowing three goals apiece.
West Virginia returns to action on Wednesday, Oct. 5, when it travels to Pittsburgh to face BIG EAST rival Pitt. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
