ST. DAVIDS, Pa. - Eastern Men's Soccer scored three times in the opening 18 minutes to take a commanding lead, but the visiting Albright Lions answered with three straight tallies, two of which came late in the first half, to end Wednesday's afternoon's match in a 3-3 draw. It is the second time in the last three seasons that the Eagles gave up a three-goal lead to the Albright Lions.
Morris Marshall,
Zach Sievert, and João Tarabal all scored for the Eagles.
Eastern came out firing on all cylinders, striking first in the seventh minute. After
Ethan Pfau moved effortlessly down the right side, he ferried a perfect cross to Marshall, who smashed it home into the bottom left corner of the net to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. It was Marshall's fifth goal of the season and his fourth in conference play.
Less than two minutes later, Sievert scored his team-leading eighth goal of the year to double the Eastern advantage.
Osmond Chan fired a strong ball over the top, and Sievert corralled it mid air and floated it over Albright keeper Mike Lawry and into the back of the net.Â
With the Eagles humming and applying all kinds of pressure on Albright's back line, Tarabal was fouled in the box and awarded a penalty kick. The senior midfielder converted on his chance, giving the Eagles a 3-0 lead.
However, the Lions began to push back. Late in the first half, Albright's leading scorer Brady Divito cut into the Eastern lead with a header goal off a corner kick in the 33rd minute. In the 42nd minute, Divito converted on his own penalty kick goal to make it a 3-2 Eastern lead heading into halftime.
With all the momentum, Albright needed just 13 minutes into the second half to tie the contest. Off a restart just outside the box from Gael Velazquez, Thayne Kahl redirected the ball in to knot the match up at 3-3.
Eastern had a couple chances later in the match to take back the lead, but could not find twine. Their best chance came in the 81st minute, as Sievert rocketed one towards the goal from just outside the box, but the ball hit the top woodwork. The Eagles also had three penalty corners in the final five minutes, but the Eagles could not come up with a quality chance.
Eastern (7-3-4) will be back home on Saturday for Senior Day against Hood.
