BURNABY, B.C. – The Simon Fraser men's soccer team began Great Northwest Athletic Conference play Thursday with a 2-2 draw away to Western Oregon in Monmouth. The Red Leafs (3-2-2, 0-0-1 GNAC) came out of the gates firing, scoring the opening goal in just the eighth minute. A
Niko Papakyriakopoulos (New Westminster, B.C.) corner found the head of
Devin O'Hea (North Vancouver, B.C.), who glanced it home for his first goal of the season.
The rest of the first half went back and forth. O'Hea nearly doubled the lead off another corner, followed by Western Oregon hitting the post midway through the half. SFU goalkeeper
Justyn Sandhu (Richmond, B.C.) made three saves in the first 45 minutes including a big one in the 39th to keep the score at 1-0 going into the break.
The Red Leafs came out flying in the second half and took a 2-0 lead in the 50th minute thanks to a pair of rookies. After some intricate passing out of the back,
Cole Toupin (Maple Ridge, B.C.) played a fabulous through ball to
Michael Hennessy (Vancouver), who made no mistake on the breakaway, calmly slotting it past the 'keeper.
The tides soon turned however, as the Wolves struck back with Alejandro Velasco scoring two goals just 48 seconds apart to level the score in the 64th and 65th minutes.
Despite pressure by both teams, there was no winning goal to be found and the game ended in a draw. The hosts held a slight edge in total shot attempts on the day (15-13) but the two teams were even in terms of shots on target with five apiece.
Nicolai Placzek. Photo by Clayton Jones / Western Oregon
This marks the first the first time since 2015 that the Red Leafs have begun their conference season with a draw. Their current unbeaten run now stands at three games.
Next up for SFU is a home game against Saint Martin's at 6 p.m. at the SFU Stadium at Terry Fox Field on Saturday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Click here for tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sfu-mens-soccer-vs-saint-martins-university-tickets-653347529047?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
For the latest information on SFU Athletics, visit
athletics.sfu.ca. You can also find us on social media at @SFU_Athletics.
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