FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The Marian men's soccer team had a tough battle on the road for their season opener on Wednesday night as they made the trip to No. 19 Indiana Tech. After trailing 2-1 in the first half, the Knights continued to fight and rallied to end the game in a 2-2 draw with the Warriors. Marian's draw gives them the 0-0-1 record to begin their 2023 campaign.
The Knights put up a fight in the first half as it was a pretty back-and-forth matchup through the first 45 minutes. Indiana Tech held the 7-5 shot advantage and were the first to strike in the 11th minute as Lucca Motta fired one past the keeper to take the early 1-0 lead. Marian had a quick response to the Warrior goal, with
Sebastian Gonzalez finding the foot of
Alan Tenorio who would put it in back netting to even the score at 1-1.
Both squads saw a shot attempt before it was the Warriors taking the one goal lead in the 31st minute after Motta found his second goal of the night. Gonzalez tried to answer for the Knights a few moments later, but struck the header wide right. Indiana Tech made an attempt to add another goal to their lead in the 35th minute, but was denied as
Juan Torres came from nowhere to save the shot, keeping his team within one. The Warriors held the 2-1 lead at the break after stopping Marian's last two attempts in the final minutes of the first half.
The start of the second half proved to be a defensive battle to start with both teams coming up empty in their lone shot attempts in the first 10 minutes of action. Tech had the next best look coming in the 65th minute, yet it was Torres making the grab. After empty chances on both sides of the pitch, Marian found their equalizer from the efforts of
Sam Goodin and
Kyle Alb. With the ball being bounced around Goodin took a shot that ricocheted off the goalie and found the foot of Alb who finished the job, putting it past the goalie to put the score at 2-2 with 17 minutes left to play.
Shots were firing the remainder of the second half with six more shots happening after the tying goal. Marian saw a late chance from
Phillip Seifert in the 86th minute, but came up short as the Tech goalie made the save. With 58 ticks remaining, the Warriors had a chance to take the victory with a header; however, the header would go wide leaving the score locked at 2-2.
Torres came up big inside goal for Marian, making four saves in a full 90 minutes of action. Tenorio and Alb each scored a goal, while five different Knights had a shot attempt. Tenorio and Seifert each had two shots, with Alb,
Bruno Merle, Gonzalez,
Kent Bailey, and
Keiji Nakamae each adding one.
Marian will be on the road again for the next matchup, taking on Wabash in a scrimmage on August 26 at 1 p.m.
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