GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Haverford College men's soccer team traveled to Gettysburg on Saturday night as the two Centennial Conference foes played a scoreless battle for 53-plus minutes. However, once the scoring began on a penalty kick from the Bullets, the flood gates were wide open as the two sides combined for four goals in an eventual 2-2 draw. Three of those four goals came during the final 13 minutes of regulation time as the Haverford erased a 2-0 deficit for the second straight match.
The Fords (4-3-3, 2-1-1 CC) found themselves down 2-0 against the Bullets (6-3-1, 2-1-1 CC), similar to the scenario they faced on Wednesday night at Muhlenberg. Although unable to secure the comeback victory on this day, Haverford did gain another point in Centennial Conference play as it scored just 14 seconds after Gettysburg went up 2-0 and eventually leveled the score with 2:14 left in regulation time.
The scoring opened just over eight minutes into the second half as Haverford was called for a foul in the box and the Bullets converted a penalty kick to go up 1-0. Gettysburg found itself up 2-0 with less than 13 minutes to play in regulation after Oladayo Thomas found the back of the net, but the contest was far from over with the rally the Fords had in store.
Seemingly before the home standing fans were back in their seats from celebrating the 2-0 lead, Meinhardt Rentrup showed that this match was far from over as he tallied his first career goal in unassisted fashion just 14 seconds after the restart.An
Paul-Andre Coulibaly knocked on the Bullets' door all night long and was finally rewarded with just 2:14 remaining in regulation as he collected the possession from Andrew Peebles and scored his second goal in three matches off a header to tie the contest at two-all. Peebles assist came on the long cross into the box and was the first helper of his career. He has now recorded an offensive point in three of the Fords' last four matches.
Playing under the lights, both sides demonstrated great skill in what was an incredibly entertaining contest. The two teams combined for 36 shots, putting 14 of those attempts on target. In addition to the offensive exploits, both defenses cleared balls off the end line to save more damage from being done. Haverford's defenders did so once during each half while the Bullets defense saved what would have been a game-tying goal at the time during the second half.
During the overtime sessions, the Bullets took nine shots but just two of them reached the goal where Dylan Ioffreda was in position for the save each time. Ioffreda finished his evening with five saves. Haverford concluded the match with 14 shots in total. Nick Jannelli took six of those attempts, while goal scorers Rentrup and Coulibaly each finished with three shots.
After a week on the road, men's soccer will be back at home for a pair of matches on Walton Field this coming week. The Fords host Scranton this coming Tuesday in a non-conference battle before resuming Centennial Conference play on Friday against McDaniel. Both of those matches will get underway at 4 p.m.