ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick College men’s soccer team tied Cornell University on Sunday afternoon on Elmore Field. The Hawks drew first blood early in the second half and the Big Red tied it with 14 minutes left for the game’s only two tallies. ’Wick’s overall record now stands at 1-1-2. Cornell is still in search of its first win at 0-1-2.
            Hartwick grabbed the lead at the 55:50 mark of the match after the Hawks earned a free kick on the left side of the Cornell 18-yard box. Junior Greg Mathers (Macclesfield, England/Binghamton U.) played the ball long to the back post for junior back Matthew Robertson (Banchory, Scotland/Binghamton U.), who headed it back across the goal mouth. Junior back Will Broomfield (Brighton, England/Cloud Community College) was in front of goal to clean it up, putting his shot up and in off the crossbar for a 1-0 Hartwick edge.
            Later in the half, the Hawks missed a golden opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Big Red. With 15 and a half minutes to play, a nice flick from Mathers in the middle of the field sent in Tim Crawford (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) all alone with Cornell keeper Rick Pflasterer (Ann Arbor, MI/Huron HS). Crawford made a move past him at the top of the box and had an empty Big Red goal in front of him, but he slipped his shot just wide of the right goalpost.  
            Less than two minutes later, Cornell evened the match. Hartwick was whistled for a pass back to goalkeeper Mateo Munarriz (Bogota, Colombia/Colegio Granadino). The play resulted in a Cornell free kick along the Hartwick end line roughly 16 yards from goal. Daniel Haber (Toronto, ONT/York Mills Coll. Inst.) played the kick right in front of goal and although Munarriz was able to get a piece of ball, Patrick Slogic’s (Colorado Springs, CO/Liberty HS) header knocked it down enabling Jake Rinnow to drive his hard shot into the net for a 1-1 game.
            Cornell had the last solid chance of regulation with roughly nine minutes to play. Haber had Munarriz beat near the top of the box on the left side of goal. He moved past him and unleashed a low, hard shot, but it hit the side netting on the outside of the near post and the match stayed level. 
            For the third consecutive game, the Hawks went to overtime. This time, however, ’Wick was down a player. Junior midfielder Simon Greatwich (Lewes, England/Lewes Priory) was whistled for his second yellow card with less than two minutes left in the contest and the Hawks were short for the remainder of the match.
            Nico Nissl (Shanghai, China/Shanghai Amer. School) had a chance for CU 15 seconds into the first overtime as he walked in with Munarriz one-on-one. Before Nissl had a chance to shot, however, Munarriz stuffed the chance.
            In the second extra session, the Big Red took three shots to ’Wick’s one. Two shots from Will Ogden (Armonk, NY/Byram Hills HS) and Tyler Regan (Philadelphia, PA/Germantown Acad.) were put wide of the target. Only Haber’s shot with six minutes left forced a relatively easy save from Munarriz.
            Cornell outshot Hartwick by a slim 14-13 margin. Both teams took a combined five corners, four of which came in the first half of play.
            Hartwick had the better of play in the opening half. The Hawks outshot the Big Red 5-3, but had a few dangerous scoring chances. Tyler Bailey (Spencer, NY/Binghamton Univ.) had a blast from 25 yards out which forced a diving save from Pflasterer 20 minutes into the game.
            Two and a half minutes later, some nice ball movement up the field from the Hawks eventually led to Crawford inside the Cornell box. Pflasterer stifled the ball, though, before Crawford could pull the trigger.
            Three minutes later, Cornell had its only real chance to score in the half. Rinow got the opportunity alone in the box with Munarriz only to have his low shot tail just wide of the far post.
            Crawford had the last chance of the half with 12 minutes to play. He chased down a bouncing ball in the Cornell box, but his shot was pushed away by a diving Pflasterer.
            Munarriz, playing in his first collegiate game, made two saves in 110 minutes. Pflasterer finished the day with seven saves.
            Today’s tie for Hartwick marks its fifth straight game against CU without a win since 2006 (0-4-1). The Hawks still hold a 30-14-4 all-time mark against the Big Red.
            Hartwick travels to Conway, SC next weekend to play in the Coastal Carolina Invitational. The Hawks open the tournament on Friday, September 16 against Ohio State at 5 p.m.

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