NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale head coach Brian Tompkins is learning a lot about his team early in the 2011 season, and so far, he is quite happy with what he is seeing. On Friday against Quinnipiac, the Bulldogs yielded the first goal, allowed the Bobcats to get a late goal to tie but still managed to escape with a well-deserved 3-2 victory on a beautiful night at Reese Stadium. Charlie Neil scored the winning goal with 2:32 left in the second half, only three minutes after Quinnipiac’s Philip Suprise had tied the score at 2-2. “I thought our guys showed a lot of character,” Tompkins said. “To get over that and find a goal is a very encouraging sign.” Kevin Michalak set up the winning goal when he sent a ball into the box from the far corner. Neil corralled it and fired a shot that deflected off a Quinnipiac defender and trickled into the corner of the net, setting off a wild celebration on the Yale bench. “It was a 50-50 ball,” said Neil, a senior who scored for the third time in his career. “It bounced right in front of me, and I knew what I had to do. The team has been putting in a ton of effort so to get this win is very emotional.” The Bulldogs (2-1) had the better of the play for much of the game, but it was the Bobcats who scored first. Durval Pereira finished a nifty give-and-go with Suprise at 32:33. Yale tied it early in the second half. A Marcus DiLallo throw in made it through the box to Jenner Fox, who drilled it in from eight yards out to tally his first career goal. Fox also set up the Bulldogs’ second goal, which was probably the prettiest of the season thus far. Fox dribbled down the near side and sent a perfect cross to a wide-open Peter Jacobson, who headed it in just four minutes after Fox’s goal. It looked like that would be all Yale would need, but Suprise stunned the big crowd at Reese when he fired a shot into the top corner from 25 yards out at 84:29. The Bulldogs outshot Quinnipiac 16-10 and had an 8-3 edge in corner kicks. “We’re working hard to win balls and we’re creating more chances,” Tompkins said. “A lot of the credit for that goes to our defense. They made it difficult for Quinnipiac to get going forward.” Goalkeeper Bobby Thalman finished with two saves to earn the victory. Yale is back in action on Sunday at 25th-ranked St. John’s. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.