HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford's men's soccer team scored twice in 13 minutes of the second half Friday afternoon at Walton Field to rally from a 3-1 deficit and earn a hard-fought draw against MIT in the 2023 season-opener for both teams.
The Engineers took a 2-1 lead over the Fords at the break and extended the lead to 3-1 early in the second half. Arun Kirk found himself open at the top of the box and fired a shot that hit the crossbar, bounced down, and into the Haverford net to give his team a two-goal lead just 7:04 into the second half.
But Haverford – playing under first-year head coach Kevin Brenner – took almost complete control from that point forward. The Fords got back into the match a mere 40 seconds after falling behind by two goals when first-year midfielder Aidan Lacy dribbled into the left corner and then delivered a perfect crossing pass to junior Andrew Peebles, who headed it past MIT keeper Lukas Hanson-Puffer to cut the Engineers' lead to 3-2.
The match rocked back and forth for the next 12-plus minutes with end-to-end action before the Fords could get the tying score. In the match's 66th minute (65:42 showing on the clock), Peebles took a perfect lead pass from sophomore Andrew Fritz and was tackled from behind in the box by Raymond Wang, giving the Fords their second penalty kick.
Senior midfielder Alex Millones took the PK, punched it hard to the left, past a diving Hanson-Puffer, and into the net to knot the match at 3-3 at the 65:42 mark. Each side had multiple shots on goal in the final minutes and into the five minutes of extra time but couldn't come up with the go-ahead goal.
MIT struck first in the match and didn't take long, scoring just 2:16 into the season when Wang got a pass from Peter Novoa and put it past Haverford goalkeeper Dylan Ioffreda to give the Engineers a quick 1-0 lead. But the lead didn't last long as the Fords got the equalizer at the 6:18 mark of the first half on a PK by Caleb Miller after Novoa fouled him.
The Engineers went back in front 2-1 in the 34th minute of the first half (33:41 on the clock) when Aidan Hallian scored off an assist from Garrett Robinson, getting the go-ahead goal past Ioffreda, an honorable mention All-Centennial Conference selection in 2022. That lead would eventually swell to 3-1 for MIT early in the second half before Haverford mounted the comeback, leading to the tie.
Haverford – sporting a new, more physical style of play to begin 2023 – outpaced MIT in almost every category on the stat sheet, including shots (18-12), shots on goal (7-6), corner kicks (4-1), offsides (three on MIT, none on the Fords), and fouls (10 on MIT to eight on Haverford).
The Fords (0-0-1) will be back in action Tuesday (Sept. 5) when they travel to Selinsgrove, Pa. to take on Susquehanna in a match set to start at 7:30 p.m. at Sassafras Multipurpose Field. Haverford's next home match is next Saturday (Sept. 9) when it hosts William Paterson in a match scheduled to kick off at 12 p.m as part of the Jimmy Mills Classic.