No. 16 Tartans Fall in Tight Match with Chicago to Start UAA Play

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The No. 16 Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team battled the University of Chicago on Saturday, October 5 to begin University Athletic Association (UAA) play and fell 2-1 after the Maroons scored in the 79th minute to break a 1-1 tie. The Tartans are now 7-2-1 overall and 0-1 in the UAA while the Maroons improve to 6-2-1 and 1-0.

The Maroons earned a corner kick in the 10th minute of the game following a free kick that was headed out by the Tartans. Junior Matt Vecchitto sent the corner kick to the far corner of the six-yard box that junior Nic Lopez sent to the far post with a direct header for his second goal of the year and the Maroons 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later, the Tartans equalized when senior Ben Bryant (Toledo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills)  curved a free kick  to the far post that bounced through traffic and over Maroon keeper Brett Wiesen for the goal.

Both senior Max Tassano (Bala Cynwyd, Pa./Lower Merion) and senior Chris Wysocki (Newtown, Pa./Germantown Academy) had header attempts go just over the crossbar a minute apart before senior keeper Christopher Madden (Reisterstown, Md./Calvert Hall) pushed a shot by Peter Boxley over the bar.

In the 37th minute, a free kick by Bryant glanced off the crossbar while Madden made two saves in the final five minutes, including one where he raced off his line, to keep the score knotted at one for the half.

Madden opened the second half with a save on a free kick by Nick Codispoti while senior Cole Christensen (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon) had a header attempt for the Tartans go just wide of the frame two minutes in.

A throw-in deep in the final third for the Maroons was played back to Codispoti who served a free ball into the box that Lopez headed in for the 2-1 advantage with 11 minutes to play.

For the match, Madden finished with four saves as Wiesen tallied four of his own.

The Tartans will next face #15 Washington University on Saturday, October 12 in St. Louis. The match is schedule to start at 11:00 a.m. CT.