Salisbury finishes in 2-2 draw at York

YORK, Pa. - The No. 10 Salisbury University men's soccer team and No. 25 York (Pa.) College battled to a stalemate in front of 1,023 on Saturday at York's Graham Field. The two teams played for over 110 minutes with no winner determined in this highly-contested Capital Athletic Conference contest.

The Sea Gulls (7-1-1, 1-0-1 CAC) forced the overtime period as they trailed 2-1 in the 89th minute when senior midfielder Alex Hargrove (Clarks Summit, Pa.) scored the equalizer off an assist from junior defender Justin Lambert (Silver Spring, Md.). The two played a nice one-two combination in the midfield before Hargrove slid the ball past the Spartan (6-0-2, 1-0-1 CAC) goalkeeper to knot things up and force overtime.

In the overtime period both teams had strong chances to score a game-winner. The Sea Gulls thought they had it in the final minute of the first overtime period when freshman midfielder Jimmy Mundy (Ellicott City, Md.) pushed the ball across the goal line, but the play was called offsides. The teams would continue with neither team gaining a significant advantage and the game ended in a tie.

In the first half, the Spartans had a dangerous opportunity early in the 21st minute on a corner kick. York's Travis Williams fired off a shot that SU senior goalkeeper Greg Wellinghoff (Salisbury, Md.) acrobatically tipped over the bar to keep the teams even. The Gulls would break that scoreless tie in the 23rd minute when junior forward Chris Finney (Columbia, Md.) headed home senior Justin McGrath's (Perry Hall, Md.) cross for the 1-0 lead, which they would take into the half. At the halftime break, York had outshot Salisbury 8-4 and each team had two corner kick opportunities.

The Spartans would even things up early in the second half when Scott Becker headed in Jon Ports' corner kick to square things up at 1-1 in the 53rd minute. York would take the lead in the 61st minute when Kemal Nuspahic collected Williams played ball into the box and touched it past Wellinghoff for the 2-1 lead. Following the goal, the Sea Gull offense began to regain their form as they fired off three of the next four shots. Hargrove and Lambert's heroic performance in the 89th minute capped off the scoring for the match.

The Spartans outshot the Sea Gulls 18-8 and held a 5-4 advantage in corner kick opportunities in the match, which featured 21 penalties, including a yellow card on the Spartans' Nuspahic in the 86th minute. Wellinghoff played all 110 minutes and finished with six saves. The SU defense of McGrath, juniors Casey Rector (Ellicott City, Md.) and Joe Rubel (Alexandria, Va.) performed admirably as they stifled the Spartan attack on numerous occasions. York senior goalkeeper Ryan Hock had three saves.

The two goals the Sea Gulls scored marks the first time since a loss to Middlebury College in the Elite Eight of the 2007 NCAA Tournament than any team has put up two goals on York.

The Sea Gulls will continue conference play this week when they host Wesley College this Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the SU Soccer Complex. The last time the two teams met, the Sea Gulls won 3-0 in the CAC Championship. The victory earned SU their second straight and eighth overall NCAA tournament appearance.