GWU Plays Liberty to a Scoreless Draw on the Pitch Saturday Afternoon
October 27, 2012 | Men's Soccer
Lynchburg, Va. - For the seventh time this season, the Gardner-Webb men's soccer team saw its match go into an overtime period, as the Runnin' Bulldogs played the Liberty Flames to a 0-0 scoreless double overtime draw on Saturday afternoon in Lynchburg, Va.
Despite being outshot 15-7 by the Flames in the match, Gardner-Webb's Scott Krotee made six total saves to keep the home team off the scoreboard over the 110 minutes of action.
The tie puts Gardner-Webb at 3-13-1 overall and 2-4-2 in the Big South, while Liberty moves to 7-6-2 overall and 5-1-2 after the match.
Liberty tested GWU's Krotee early, as Sam Duinnick put a header on frame in the third minute, which was hauled in by the redshirt-senior.
The Runnin' Bulldogs were not far behind in registering its first shot on goal, as junior forward Chris Davis fired off a shot that forced Liberty goalkeeper Scott Sutarik to make his first save of the match in the sixth minute of play.
On the ensuing counter attack, the Flames Blessing Tahuona looked to put the home team on the scoreboard first, as he blasted a shot toward the goal only to have Krotee knock it out of play in the seventh minute.
The Tahuona shot attempt jump-started an offensive surge by the Flames, as Liberty recorded four more shots over the next 10 minutes of the contest, forcing Krotee to make two more stops to keep the home team off the scoreboard.
The two teams would then trade shots in the 39th minute, before junior defender Marius Hammersmark played a corner kick into the box that found the head of sophomore Matt Bogart whose sent the ball high of the goal in the 41st minute.
Neither team would tally another shot over the rest of the half to send the contest into the halftime break tied at 0-0.
The second half started out much like the first half finished, as neither team was able to get a scoring opportunity over the first 18 minutes of the half.
Liberty's offense began to take charge in the 64th minute, as Sachem Wilson had a header hit off the crossbar, while the two follow up attempts both by Kyle Breitmeyer was deflected offline by Krotee.
On the resulting corner kick, Liberty's Austin Wyman got a shot off, only to see it sail wide of the goal in the 67th minute, as the Flames continued to knock on the door of scoring the first goal of the match.
Just like in the first half, the GWU first shot attempt on the frame came off the foot of Davis, as the effort went wide of the goal in the 68th minute, while Liberty's Wilson tried to counter with a shot off target later on in the match.
Travis Wide looked to give Liberty the lead in the 83rd minute, while GWU's John Sargent's shot attempt in the 86th minute both missed to send the match into overtime tied at 0-0.
The Runnin' Bulldogs would post the only shot in the first overtime, as Hammersmark 's shot attempt in the 95th minute flew wide of the goal.
In the second overtime period, Liberty looked for the win in the 108th minute by way of a shot from Breitmeyer only to see it glide over the crossbar and out of play.
GWU's lone chance came with 10 seconds remaining in the match, as forward Satoshi Tatsumi's shot was blocked by a Liberty defender to end the match in a 0-0 scoreless draw.
Davis led the GWU attack with two shot attempts, placing one on frame, while Bogart, Hammersmark, Sargent, Tatsumi and Jon Ole Reinhardsen all posted one shot for the match.
For Liberty, Breitmeyer recorded five shots overall and placed three on target.
GWU held a 19-12 advantage in fouls on the afternoon; however, Liberty led in shots on goal (6-1) and in corners (9-5).
Gardner-Webb will next host Presbyterian College on Wednesday night, October 31st, at 7 p.m., while Liberty will return to action next week as well traveling to Radford for a 6 p.m. kick-off on Tuesday night.
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| Box Score: GWU 0, Liberty 0 (2OT) |
