BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's soccer team fell behind by two goals in the first half but the Greyhounds would rally after the intermission and play to a 3-3, double-overtime draw that included a pair of goals from freshman forward Chris Cella with visiting Delaware Valley College in non-conference action on the HUB Quad Wednesday afternoon.
"We started playing with a little bit of passion and heart in the second half, and that will take you a long way," stated Head Coach Todd Ervin. "It was good to see."
The Aggies fired off the first three shots of the game but the Greyhounds countered with attempts on goal by junior forward Zachary Klein in the eighth minute and sophomore midfielder Saul Marcial in the 10th minute. The Hounds nearly took a lead in the 31st minute when junior midfielder Brett Harder put a shot on goal and sophomore midfielder Robert McKinley was just wide a minute later.
Delaware Valley scored the first goal in the 37th minute for a 1-0 lead. Moravian looked to counter before halftime with junior midfielder Seth Reynolds putting a header on goal in the 42nd minute and senior forward Shane McCaslin firing a pair of shots to the right of the net. However, it was the Aggies that would head into the intermission with a 2-0 lead they scored on a header with the ball just getting into the goal before the horn sounded to end the first 45 minutes of action.
Moravian opened the second half with a shot wide of the goal from freshman midfielder Brett Lubben and a shot by junior forward Shane Harder that sailed over the crossbar. The Aggies almost made it a three goal lead in the 51st minute with a shot off the crossbar.
The Greyhounds would finally breakthrough onto the scoreboard in the 55th minute when Lubben headed a crossing pass from Klein off the right post and into the back of the net for his second goal of the season. Klein played the ball from the left side of the field across to the right side of the six-yard box where Lubben knocked it in.
The Aggies looked to get their two-goal advantage back with four shots over the next 11 minutes including three on goal that were stopped by Moravian junior keeper Brian Boland, part of his eight-save performance.
Moravian tied the match in the 73rd minute when Cella tracked down a loose ball on the long kick, got it away from the Aggies' keeper and into the back of the net from the top of the six-yard box for his third goal of the season and tie the match at 2-2.
The Hounds needed exactly 16 seconds to take the lead. After stealing the ball from Delaware Valley, Moravian worked back into the offensive end with Cella finishing off a crossing pass by junior forward Andrew Arcell as Cella took the pass from the right side and tapped it into the goal.
"Chris is one of the hardest working players on the team," commented Ervin. "He is incredibly strong, and he get goals. Sometimes they don't look good and others do but he finds a way to get it done."
DVC would have the next two shots on goal before Cella and Arcell had back-to-back shots on goal in the 77th minute. Sophomore defender Ian Larimeradded another shot on the keeper in the 79th minute but it would be the Aggies that tied the score on a header in the 82nd minute.
The Greyhounds made a push over the final five minutes to end the game in regulation with Reynolds putting a header on goal and both junior defender Matthew Gandy and McKinley hitting the crossbar in the final three minutes.
"We played hard in the second half and we wanted to win," Ervin said. "When you do that you can play well, and we did play well. I thought we were a little more than unlucky to not win with hitting two crossbars and a post, and another hitting one of their players in the face as it was heading to the open net. Three goals is great but we probably should have had more. We played well."
When the squads headed to the first 10-minute overtime session, Moravian would have a man-advantage for the rest of the match as the Aggies had a player pick up his second yellow card of the game, turning into red with just nine seconds left in regulation and forcing Delaware Valley to play with 10 players for the rest of the match.
Each squad would get two shots in the first overtime session with Reynolds getting the only shot on goal with just 28 seconds left. In the final overtime session, Larimer had a shot blocked early in the overtime while Boland made his final save with 29 seconds to play to preserve the tie.
The Greyhounds did have a 26-19 advantage in shots and a 7-2 edge in corner kicks in the contest.
Moravian will return to action on Saturday, September 27 when the squad welcomes The Catholic University of America to the HUB Quad for a Landmark Conference match beginning at 1:00 p.m.
