VESTAL, N.Y. – Sebastian Sunol scored off a rebound in the 86
th minute as visiting NJIT (4-4-3, 1-0-1 AE) forced a 1-1 tie against Binghamton (2-6-2, 0-0-2 AE) in an America East men's soccer game on Saturday evening at the Bearcats Sports Complex. The tie is the second for the Bearcats in their past three matches - both of which have come against conference opponents.
Sunol's goal finished off a corner kick - which led to a loose ball in front of the net. He then fired the rebound from close range into the net in what would be the final shot for either team in the match. Kendall Thomas was credited with the assist.
Earlier in the match, graduate student forward
Jack Green scored his third goal of the season in the 26
th minute. He took a pass from redshirt senior midfielder
Anthony Lazaridis, got by a defender and fired the ball into the lower-left corner of the net.
Green and Lazaridis continue to lead the Bearcats in scoring this season. Green's three goals as well as his three assists and nine total points all rank first on the team. Lazaridis, meanwhile, now has five total points, with tonight's assist to go along two goals.
At the other end of the field, sophomore goalkeeper
Jack Root recorded four saves in his third consecutive start. In those three matches, his goals against average (GAA) is 0.67 while his save percentage is 0.833.
Root's leaping save in the 83
rd minute seemed to be NJIT's last chance to get the equalizer. That was, however, until Sunol leveled the score just three minutes later.
"I thought we had a pretty good game plan going in and I thought our guys executed it terrifically," head coach
Paul Marco said. "But I am really gutted that we leaked a goal late in the game on that corner kick. Hats off to NJIT. They kept coming at us and its just disappointing. We have to a better job at finishing out the game."
NJIT finished the match with an 11-9 shot advantage while the Bearcats had a 6-5 edge in shots on goal. Possession time favored the Highlanders by 51-49 percent.
Samuel Reisgys finished with five saves for NJIT.
Binghamton's scheduled match on Tuesday at home against Bucknell has been canceled. The Bearcats' next match is now next Saturday at UAlbany at 6 p.m.
