ST. DAVIDS, Pa.--Eastern University Men's Soccer battled Misericordia Univeristy for 110 minutes of scoreless action in a blustery Saturday afternoon home game and came away with a 0-0 draw.
Eastern, now 8-4-1, outshot Misericordia 14-11 and took six of those shots in the second overtime.
Misericordia (10-1-2) had been ranked No. 13 nationally in the beginning of October. "It's always a tight game [between Eastern and Misericordia]," Eagles' coach Mark Wagner said. "They're a good team. They're always organized and disciplined and they battle."
Coach Wagner told his players after the game that they needed to work on being a little sharper before they get to where they want to be.
"We're going to work a lot on the restart game and just being better with service to the right spots and being tighter on our runs," he said. "We need to be a little more precise on our movements, a little cleaner on our passing in the front third, and a little bit better on our crossing and finishing.
"We're close," he continued. "We are very close. I feel like this is a team that can compete for a conference championship and that's what I told them."
Eastern came close to scoring on several occasions, earning three penalty corners in the final nine minutes of regulation. Eastern also had a chance in the first overtime when Brandon Reichart was taken out in the box in what many thought should have resulted in a penalty kick.
"We had a couple of pretty good opportunities that went begging," Wagner said.
Intense gusts of wind played a factor in the game."I think the wind was a factor, probably for both teams, maybe a little more for us," Wagner said. "Misericordia's more of a possession team this year than they've been in some years and for them they were a little more direct. With the wind being the way that it is, it kind of hurts the flow of the game. I don't know that either team got into a really good rhythm; clearly we did not get into a good rhythm."
Goalie Jon Crowder recorded his third shutout this season in the draw.
Eastern plays FDU-Florham at home Wednesday at 4 pm.
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