BALTIMORE—Swarthmore College Men's Soccer went on the road on Saturday evening looking for a chance to pick up points in the Centennial Conference standings in a tilt with the No. 7 Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays.
The Garnet (8-2-3, 1-2-2 Centennial) earned a point by forcing a 2-2 draw with the nationally-ranked Blue Jays (9-2-1, 3-1-1 Centennial). With four games remaining, the Garnet are hovering in sixth place in the league and are still very much in contention for one of the five playoff seeds.
Johns Hopkins drew first blood, sinking a penalty kick in the 43rd minute on a strong attempt to the right past the diving reach of Swarthmore freshman goalkeeper Max Kral. The shot was one of six for Johns Hopkins in the first half. Swarthmore was slow to create scoring opportunities, only firing off one shot in the first half, a curling free kick by Trevor Homstad that was only stopped because of a diving save.
Swarthmore responded with seven attempts in the second half and found the back of the net in the 65th minute. The Garnet countered a botched Hopkins corner kick but Bless Tumushabe was taken out by a Hopkins defender on a blatant attempt to disrupt the breakaway. A yellow card was issued to Hopkins and the Garnet were quick to get the action moving again. Soon, Omri Gal sped up the right side with possession and left off a pass for Joey Bradley about 20 yards out. Bradley cranked a shot that caromed off the crossbar and straight down. Gal was quick to follow up the rebound and volleyed it home with a strong right-footed shot for the score, his first of the season.
The Garnet took the lead in the 83rd minute when Joe Barile netted his sixth goal of the season, finishing off a pass from Tumushabe. Tumushabe received a pass from Lau on the right side, broke for the end line and sent a cross skittering across the ground. Barile slid in front of the goalmouth and guided in the go-ahead goal on the slide.
Swarthmore's upset bid of the seventh-ranked Blue Jays fell just short. With 34 seconds remaining, the Garnet were called for a foul at the very top of the box that resulted in a second Hopkins penalty kick. The low shot to the right had got past Kral who had guessed left and equalized the game at 2-2.
Swarthmore tallied three shots during extra time and had a man-up advantage for the final seven minutes after Hopkins' Liam Creedon was shown a red card. Michael Gross took one last shot on goal for Swarthmore in the 108th minute but was denied.
Kral finished with two saves in 110 minutes in net. Swarthmore held a 6-4 advantage on shots on goal.
Next up for Swarthmore is a road date with McDaniel College. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Note: A correction is pending to award Joey Bradley an assist in the official box score.
