Men's Soccer Draws, 2-2, at Albany
The Blue Devils return home against Hartford on Wednesday.
The Central Connecticut men's soccer team earned a 2-2 tie at Albany on Saturday night. The Blue Devils scored twice in the opening half for the second straight game and held on for a result on the road to move to 2-3-1 on the season.
The Blue Devils got on the board first at the 2:59 mark when sophomore Ryan Taylor put a shot towards the goal that deflected off of an Albany defender and into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
The Great Danes (3-2-1) managed to answer quickly at the 9:50 mark. Afonso Pinheiro took a pass from Pedro Espindola on the right wing and put his shot past junior Nick Velleca in the right side of the net to make it 1-1.
Central managed to regain the lead in the 17th minute after their attack drew a penalty in the Albany box. Senior Zach Zurita finished the penalty kick for his first goal of the year to make it 2-1.
The teams settled in defensively for the rest of the first half with both keepers making stops and Central took a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
Albany opened the second half pressing to level the score and despite drawing five corner kicks in the opening minutes, CCSU continued to maintain the lead. The Great Danes managed to get a goal at the 77:16 mark when Pinheiro beat his defender and put a shot inside the near post from six yards out to make it 2-2.
In the first overtime, Carlos Clark had a header off a corner kick that was saved by Velleca. The Great Danes had another shot in the second overtime stopped by Velleca and the final scoring chance of the game came just before time expired when senior Dominic Plant had a shot stopped by Danny Vitiello.
Velleca finished the night with seven saves for Central. Vitiello made two saves for Albany, as the Great Danes had a 21-5 margin in shots.
The Blue Devils will return home to host Hartford on Wednesday, September 23, at CCSU Soccer Field. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m.
