Sept. 28, 2005

Stats

Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst and Gannon played 110 minutes of soccer Wednesday before settling for a 1-1 tie in front of nearly 300 fans at Mercyhurst. The Lakers left the field with an overall record of 1-6-2 and a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) mark of 0-2-2. Gannon, ranked fifth in the Great Lakes Region entering play, is now 5-1-3 and 1-0-3 respectively.

The Golden Knights, unbeaten in their last eight games, took a 1-0 lead at 35:09 when freshman Dan Howell scored on a brilliant individual effort. Howell took a pass in the center of the field deep in Mercyhurst territory, booted the ball ahead while leaping over a defender, and beat freshman netminder Daniel Mudd on a low shot to Mudd's left. It was Howell's sixth goal of the year.

The Lakers rallied early in the second half when sophomore Kyle Jackson dove and headed Jason Pedra's corner kick past Gannon netminder Andrew Baldasare at 66:01.

Mudd was heroic for the Lakers. Although he was credited with only six saves, most of them resulted from quality scoring chances by Gannon. He robbed Howell twice, once three minutes into the game from point blank range and the second on a breakaway with six minutes left in regulation. The acrobatic native of Hull, England, also jumped to deflect another Gannon shot over the crossbar in the latter stages of the exciting game.

Mercyhurst was forced to play a man down for nearly 40 minutes after junior Dan Young picked up his second yellow card at 59:58. That helped the Knights to a 27-16 advantage in shots and a 7-3 edge in corner kicks. Both teams combined for 45 fouls and four yellow cards.

The double overtime was the second straight for Gannon and the second of eight straight road games.

Mercyhurst continued its streak of not scoring more than one goal in any game this season, but still leads the all-time series against Gannon, 17-13-2.

Mercyhurst will try for its first conference win Saturday when it travels to Saginaw Valley State for a 1:00pm match.