Despite More Opportunities, Tartans Held to 1-1 Tie Against Brandeis

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team hosted University Athletic Association (UAA) counterpart Brandeis University on Saturday, October 2 for the league opener for both teams. The Tartans carried most of the possession and had more opportunities but were held to a 1-1 tie against the Judges. The Tartans are now 6-1-3 overall while the Judges move to 3-4-2.

Neither team got on the board in the first 45 minutes of action with the Tartans registering one of their four shots on goal. That attempt came off the left foot of sophomore Ethan Vertal (Herndon, Va. / Oakton) in the 21st minute when his shot from the left side of the 18 was pushed away with a diving effort by Brandeis' Aiden Guthro.

With just after five minutes gone by in the second period the Tartans won the ball in their defensive half of the field along the right sideline. Sophomore Luke Marolda (West Windsor, N.J. / The Peddie School) found graduate student Jordi Long (Washington, D.C. / Montgomery Blair) on the run along the right sideline and Long took a few long touches up the field and fired off a shot from nearly 22 yards out at the corner of the 18-yard box to the left upper corner for his third goal of the season.

It was about five minutes later when a defensive miscue by the Tartans resulted in a foul and free kick for the Judges from straight on and to the left of the penalty arc. Brandeis made the free kick opportunity count when Andres Gonzalez floated a shot to the left corner just over a diving Ethan Kalis (Riverwoods, Ill. / Adlai E. Stevenson).

The game remained tied for the rest of regulation with the Tartans getting one other shot on goal but it was again turned away by Guthro in the 81st minute.

Vertal had his third shot of the day saved in the third minute of overtime when Guthro reacted to a diving header at the right post to turn away the scoring chance.

Both Guthro and Kalis made a save in the second overtime to close out the 1-1 tie.

The Tartans will next travel to New York, New York, to face the Violets of New York University on Saturday, October 9 at 1:30 p.m.