After 110 minutes of back-and-forth action and twice finding themselves trailing, the Davidson men’s soccer team battled the University of Alabama-Birmingham to a 2-2 tie Friday evening in the opening match of the Nike Invitational at Charlotte’s Transamerica Field.
“Tonight was a really gutsy effort,” said Davidson head coach Matt Spear. “This team has been battling some adversity, and I’m real proud of these guys how hard they played throughout the match. When we found ourselves behind, we could’ve folded. But we recovered, kept fighting, and got the goal back on a beautiful score by Yannick.”
The ‘Cats came out firing in the first half, recording their first shot 15 seconds into the match, and notching 11 in the frame. In addition to the goal, those chances brought about a number of close chances, including one at the 30-minute mark when a Pilgrim header off a corner kick bounced off crossbar and went straight down, barely missing the goal line.
The first goal of the match was scored by UAB, when Shane Elsner headed the ball into the net off a long cross from outside the penalty box.
Davidson found the back of the net in the 40th minute when sophomore Alex Caskey maneuvered his way through the UAB defense, taking a shot from three yards outside the penalty box that snuck past the goalkeeper’s diving attempt and into the lower left corner of the net, pulling the ‘Cats even at 1-1. It was Caskey’s second goal on the year, matching his total from the 2007 season.
The Blazers went back on top with just under six minutes remaining when UAB’s Michael Mravec deflected a corner kick off his heel and past the Davidson defense to go up, 2-1, and setting up Pilgrim’s 85th-minute equalizer.
Both teams battled in the final five minutes of regulation to try and find the game-winner, but both defenses held strong, turning back the scoring attempts and sending the match into overtime, the first extra period played by Davidson this season. Going in, Pilgrim knew how critical the extra time could be.
“You’ve just got to tell yourself that every play matters,” he said. “If you are the one to make the big play, you can win the game for your team. So you have to just know that every play matters, even when you’re tired.”
Sophomore Matt McElroy, who replaced starter Robby Goldsberry in goal in the second half, made a spectacular save four minutes into OT, when he stonewalled a point-blank UAB shot, then gathered up the rebound to prevent another chance by the Blazers. McElroy then made an almost identical save in the final minute of play to preserve the draw. On the opposite side, Machel Turner just missed a chance to end the match with two minutes remaining in the second overtime when his header to the near side of the goal went just wide of the net.
Goldsberry added to his Southern Conference-leading saves count with a pair of stops in the first half of the match. McElroy had four saves of his own, all of which came in the two overtime periods. Pilgrim and Charlie Reiter each took a game-high six shots, helping the ‘Cats out-shoot the Blazers, 22-18, on the match.
The Wildcats will close out the tournament on Sunday when they face off against the Eagles of Winthrop, with kick off scheduled for 12 noon from Transamerica Field, a match that Spear believes could be the beginning of the turnaround for the team.
Whenever you come back, especially twice in one game like we did tonight, that shows your resilience,” he said. “It shows the team believes, and that is critical. When you get a resilient team that believes they can come back, that goes a long way in being successful.”