CEDARVILLE, Ohio - The Slippery Rock University men's soccer team opened up the 2019 season with a 1-1 tie on the road Thursday at Cedarville University.
 
Slippery Rock (0-0-1) surrendered an early goal in the 16th minute, but eventually scored the equalizer 16 minutes into the second half on the way to its first season-opening tie since playing Lake Erie College to a 0-0 draw to start the 2013 season.
 
Cedarville (0-0-1) tallied its first goal of the year at 15:27 when the Yellow Jackets were awarded a penalty kick that was converted by Mauri Ochoa Vazquez. CU went on to hold The Rock to just three shots, all of which were off target, to take the one-goal advantage into halftime.
 
Undeterred, Slippery Rock came out the aggressors in the second half and in the 62nd minute junior Ale Okuma found sophomore Dan Schearer who proceeded to place a shot past Cedarville goalkeeper Carter Selvius for the game-tying goal. The score was Schearer's first collegiate goal.
 
Slippery Rock recorded two more shots on goal over the final 29 minutes of regulation, but attempts by senior Luke Picchi in the 63rd minute and junior Sean Tinney in the 89th minute were both stopped by Selvius. Defensively, The Rock fended off three Cedarville attempts to force the game into overtime.
 
While SRU was able to record just one shot over both overtime periods, a wide attempt by Tinney in the 96th minute, The Rock successfully defended a pair of Yellow Jacket corner kicks in the first overtime and three shot attempts in the second overtime to finish off the 1-1 tie.
 
Senior goalkeeper Matt Hunsberger stopped three of Cedarville's four shots on goal to lead a strong team defensive performance. In addition to Schearer's goal and Okuma's assist, SRU was paced offensively by Tinney with five total shots and sophomore Abdallah Bangura with three attempts of his own.
 
As a team, Cedarville held advantages over The Rock in total shots (15-11), shots on goal (4-3) and corner kicks (5-3).
 
Slippery Rock continues its non-conference road swing 6 p.m. Saturday at Lake Erie College.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
GOAL: CU 1, ROCK 0; 15:27: Mauri Ochoa Vazquez (Penalty kick)
GOAL: CU 1, ROCK 1; 61:06: Schearer from Okuma


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