BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – The Gardner-Webb University men's soccer team played #8 James Madison University on Tuesday evening in front of a packed crowd at Greene-Harbison Stadium. GWU earned a 2-2 draw after 90 minutes.
 
"For 60 minutes I thought it was an end-to-end match.", said coach Wells. "I think we had our chances; they had their chances. I thought 2-2 was a fair result at that time."
 
Sophomore forward Pablo Brimeux opened the scoring with a solo goal in the 9^th minute following a turnover from JMU goalkeeper Sebastian Conlon. JMU tied it up on a penalty shot taken by Clay Obara in the 21^st minute. The second half saw a second goal by Obara that he tucked into the bottom left side in the 52^nd minute. The Runnin' Bulldogs answered with a goal of their own in the 58^th minute with a strike from sophomore midfielder Aristode Youlou. A red card in the 60^th minute resulted in GWU being down two players for most of the rest of the contest. The Runnin' Bulldogs generated a number of close chances despite this late into the match. Brimeux and Youlou recorded their first goals of the 2023 season.
 
"Then obviously we had two men sent off.", said coach Wells. "For us to go 28 minutes with 10 men is an incredible amount of character from a group has just got here at 18 new guys. So, I am extremely proud of them for that, but we don't want to be seen as a team that is disrespectful or coming off too aggressive in the wrong ways. We do obviously have to show some of these new guys, these guys that have not been part of the group before, how to go about things during a 90 minute game."

Gardner-Webb now sits at 2-0-1 on the season. Their next match is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 7:00 p.m. when they travel to Winston-Salem, N.C. to take on the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons.