SPRINGFIELD, Mass. The American International College men's soccer team played Stonehill College to a 1-1 double-overtime draw in Northeast-10 action this evening from Ronald J. Abdow Field.
The game marked the fourth consecutive double-overtime home contest for the Yellow Jackets and their fifth on the year as they run their record to 3-5-4 overall and 1-3-4 in the NE-10 while the Hawks now stand at 5-5-2 on the year and 2-4-2 in the conference.
The Skyhawks opened the scoring off a beautiful left footed free-kick by senior Evan Devanny (Concord, N.H.) from 45-yards away as he sent it into the box. Sophomore Adam Branco (Naugatuck, Conn.) raced through the box and got his head on the ball to send it into the top left corner of the net from point blank range for the 1-0 edge in the 14th minute.
AIC had a chance to tie in the 25th minute as senior Frazer Cronin (Bromley, England) sent a beautiful ball ahead for classmate Ed Sharman (Tunbridge Wells, England) on the right side of the box. The senior then outran his defender and went to dish in front to senior Alec Cerqueira (Peabody, Mass.), however, Stonehill senior keeper Luke Besse (Hamilton, Mass.) read it well and grabbed the cross attempt to hinder the threat.
Then in the 28th minute Cronin again led the break with a beautiful ball over the top to senior Jason Burnusuz (Westfield, Mass.) on the right side who sent a great cross all the way to Cerqueira on the left side of the box, but again Besse watched the play develop and got his body in front of the shot to make the save and keep the one-goal advantage for the visitors.
The Yellow Jackets finally broke through for the equalizer as senior Kyle Kazukynas (Enfield, Conn.) threw the ball in from the left sideline and junior Juan Correa (Wellington, Fla.) played the ball down off his chest and fed it back to the senior who fired from 25 yards out and picked the top right corner for the 1-1 tie in the 41st minute.
Sharman then found himself one-on-one with a defender headed toward the net and he made the man miss in the box and fired toward the short-side post, but again Besse made a great stop to preserve the tie headed into the intermission.
The first part of the second-half was more of a back-and-forth affair with neither team grabbing a true advantage as the defenses stiffened and didn't allow many solid scoring chances on either end.
However, in the 75th minute freshman Alejandro Alvarez (Pereira, Columbia) nearly set up Sharman on the left side of the box for the go-ahead score and Besse made another diving stop as the senior tried picking the far post and the game remained tied as the game trickled into overtime.
Senior Kevin Milla (Lyndhurst, N.J.) nearly set up Burnusuz for the winning score off a corner kick by Sharman in the 96th minute, but his header bid was stonewalled by Besse to keep the game going into a second overtime period.
It was then the Skyhawks who had the best chance in the second overtime after a foul was called on the hosts just outside the top of the box. It was senior Drew Montano (Avon, Conn.) to take the free-kick and the senior tried to go high just under the bar, but junior Sebastian Tamayo (Stratford, Conn.) leaped and got a hand on it knocking it out of harm's way in the 105th minute.
Besse made seven saves for the game while Tamayo stopped a pair of shots to run his record to 3-5-4 on the year.
AIC held the commanding lead in shots 28-8 (8-3 SOG) while also having a 5-4 advantage in corner kicks.
The Jackets will return to action Saturday as they travel to New Haven for a 7 p.m. affair.
