ST. DAVIDS, Pa.— Seeking to extend a five-game unbeaten string, Eastern University Men's Soccer rallied to tie the score late, but the visiting Neumann University Knights converted an 87th minute penalty kick to claim a 2-1 MAC Commonwealth win.
Morris Marshall scored in the 81st minute to tie the game.
Neumann (7-3-1, 3-0) opened the scoring with a penalty kick in the 34th minute. That call came on a challenge for a crossed ball. Though the Knights had more possession in the match, the half ended with a slim 7-6 edge in shots.
After the break, the Eagles flipped the game and had more of the ball. With
Osmond Chan winning balls in the middle, the Eagles created several early chances but lacked the precision on the final ball to tie the score.
Michael Arcuri, who finished with six stops, made a couple key saves to keep the Eagles within one.
With the clock winding down,
Zach Sievert collected a bouncing pass from João Tarabel in the middle of the field. Sievert beat one defender and feathered a perfect pass in behind the Neumann back row. Marshall won the race and slipped an outside-of-the-foot shot under the onrushing goalkeeper for his third tally of the year.
"I am proud of the effort," Head Coach
Luca Mellor said after the match. "We defended well as a team. All through the second half, we won balls and had chances, but we were not precise enough with our final ball. We kept battling and finally got our moment of quality. We were playing to win the match and came up just short."
The Eagles (6-2-3, 1-1) had a corner kick and several dangerous looking possessions after tying the match, but the Knights found their moment after a ball switched to the left side and a well-rested Luke Mejia earned the edge and the penalty kick.
Eastern travels to Stevenson on Tuesday to take on a Mustang team that is also 1-1 in the league.
