On a day when 10 freshman saw the field for a significant amount of time, it was a senior who changed the momentum of the game. Kyle Hurst scored the late equalizer as Eastern University Men's Soccer (2-1-1) rallied from a one goal deficit to earn a 1-1 tie in a dramatic home-opener against the Rowan University Profs. Rowan entered the contest unbeaten and ranked 10th in the South-Atlantic Region.

With the Eagles struggling to get possession or pressure, the visitors had several opportunities early. In the 12th minute, Rowan midfielder Christian Gonzalez lofted a ball over the top of the Eagle's defense for Ryan Gordon to redirect over the rushing Eastern keeper, Matt Leig.

Despite a less than inspired first half, the last five minutes propelled the Eagles into the second period.  With 3 minutes left in the half, Rowan committed a foul outside the box and Kyle Hurst fired a dangerous shot that a defender in the wall headed over the end-line. On the ensuing corner kick, Eastern defender Alex Schweitzer headed the ball just wide of the goal. Brandon Beaumont picked off the goal kick and fired a shot that narrowly missed the crossbar.

Head Coach Mark Wagner said: "In the first half we did not play well when we did not have the ball. At halftime, we asked the guys to adjust and to press the way we needed to. They did that very well and the game changed."

With fresh legs and a new strategy, the Eagles took control of the second half. High pressure off the ball in the offensive third forced mistakes from the Profs' back line. This led to Eastern's goal in the 76th minute of play. Senior center back Kyle Hurst intercepted a pass at midfield and cut the ball back to open up a passing lane. Instead, he opened up space for himself.

"I was planning on just carrying it until I saw a forward to pass to. I wasn't thinking 'goal' at all. I just dribbled until I was outside the box and decided, 'Why not?' I put my head down and ripped one. It felt like a good shot, but when I heard it deflect off the defender, I knew it was going in," said Hurst.

Th goal resulted in a marked change in the posture and momentum of both teams as the minutes counted to end regulation. There were chances on both ends of the field but neither team capitalized.

Eastern started the overtime period quickly, with freshman defender James Le making a run down the left side of the field and serving a perfectly weighted ball across the face of the goal. Dexter Lamparter redirected the ball toward the net and Rowan keeper Charlie Cunliffe made his first of three impressive saves in overtime.

The other two saves came in the second overtime period. Freshman forward Brandon Beaumont crossed the ball in front of the net just over Ben Faro's head and out of reach of Brandon Reichart.  Reichart chased down the ball, turning quickly and hitting a shot on frame. Cunliffe sprang to his right to lay out for the save.

Though Wagner was pleased with the change in his team, he still wants them to focus on their goals for the season: "We wanted to start fast, we did not start fast.  We have two goals: We wanna start fast and we want to measure ourselves by the way we play when we don't have the ball. If we do that well, we earn the right to play well with the ball.  We didn't do that the first half, but they changed it for the second and for overtime."

Eastern returns to action next Wednesday at Rutgers-Camden in a 7:00 p.m. match.

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