#5 Tartans Nipped in Double Overtime by Rochester

A double overtime goal by the University of Rochester Yellowjackets defeated the #5 Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team 3-2 in University Athletic Association action Friday night on the campus of Carnegie Mellon. The Tartans drop to 8-2-1 on the year and 1-1-1 in UAA play while the Yellowjackets won their first UAA game to improve to 7-2-2 overall and 1-0-2 in league play.

Rochester was aggressive from the opening whistle when Max Fan was unlucky hitting the post in the second minute as the shot got by a diving Christopher Madden (Reisterstown, Md./Calvert Hall) in goal for the Tartans. However, Nick Pastore would not miss the goal on the team's second attempt of the game in the last seconds of the fifth minute.

Pastore was rewarded for a far post run where he tapped in a shot to an open net after Alex Swanger was able to flick a header over the Tartan defense and then chip Madden to the side before passing it to Pastore for the finish and the one-goal advantage.

Carnegie Mellon junior Chris Wysocki (Newtown, Pa./Germantown Academy) had the Tartans first shot in the 14th minute when he witnessed a header glance just over the crossbar.

The Yellowjackets took advantage of the Tartans misfortune and added to their lead with a goal in the 21st minute. Jack Thesing scored his sixth goal of the season after a scramble in the box resulted with Madden and Thesing going for the ball. Thesing won the 50/50 battle and then put the shot in behind Madden.

Prior to the 50/50 chance, the Tartan defense tried to clear the ball from the box but the pass forward hit a Rochester player in the back and went straight back toward the goal where Madden and Thesing met.

Carnegie Mellon pressed forward as junior Matt Sarett (Huntersville, N.C./Cannon) had a shot blocked by the Rochester defense and senior Ben Bryant (Toldedo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills) had a shot saved by Rochester's Scott Garfing.

Garfing also had a critical save on a penalty shot by Bryant in the 31st minute keeping the score 2-0 in Rochester's favor at the half.

The Tartans quickly cut the deficit in half when junior Mike Ferraco (Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills) sloted home his second goal of the season 44 seconds into the second period.

Junior Max Tassano (Bala Cynwyd, Pa./Lower Merion) put a diagonal ball to the near post where Sarett settled it and turned toward goal and continued the play with a square pass across the goal mouth where Ferraco charged in for the finish.

The Tartans continue to get chances and earned a second penalty kick for the game in the 71st minute after Ferraco played a ball in to freshman Connor Webb (Dallas, Texas/J.J. Pearce) who dribbled across the box and was fouled when attempting to shoot. Tassano put in the equalizer for his team-leading eighth goal of the season.

The first overtime period saw the Tartans get two shots off including a blast by Wysocki that was saved by Garfing and a header by senior Alex Abedian (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North) off a corner kick that was just wide of the post.

Thesing struck with the game-winner with 2:19 left to play after Swanger got around the Tartan defense on the outside and played a ball across the box and past Madden for Thesing to slide onto and score.

The Tartans will host Case Western Reserve University at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 14 for their next contest.