The Quinnipiac men’s soccer team played the Iona Gaels to a 2-2 tie at the Quinnipiac Soccer Field on Saturday afternoon. Junior Pierre Soubrier and freshman Philip Suprise scored the goals for the Bobcats.
The guests got on the board first with a goal in the sixth minute from Giovanni Destasio. Following a corner, Mario Rios crossed the ball into the box where he fed a wide open Destasio. He beat goalie Freddy Hall with a shot into the lower left corner. The goal given up by Hall was only the second on the season, and ended his 361-minute scoreless streak in net.
It only took six minutes for the Bobcats to tie things up. Soubrier, a defenseman, circled a free kick just outside the 18-yard box around a wall of defenders and into the lower right corner of Iona’s goal in the 12th minute. It was Soubrier’s first career goal as a Bobcat.
Only four minutes later, the Gael’s regained the lead. A long deflected shot from inside the Bobcats half was tipped in the air by Hall. Destasio was the first to recover and pushed the ball over the goal line for his second goal of the game.
Suprise scored his first career goal for the Bobcats in the 40th minute to tie the game up once again. Suprise chased down a long pass, split two defenders, ran inside the box, spun around another defender and ripped a shot off the right crossbar and into the goal for the 2-2 score five minutes before halftime.
“I didn’t know how to react at first,” Suprise said. “It was very surreal. Once I saw the referee point to the middle of the circle I savored the moment and hugged all my teammates.”
Bobcats head coach Eric Da Costa has been satisfied with the play of his freshmen early on in the season.
“We have a lot of confidence in our young players,” Da Costa said. “We’re putting them into situations where they have to perform. We’re looking for them to deal with the pressure and they handled it pretty well today.”
The second half featured 10 shots by Iona and eight by the Bobcats, but none of them found the back of the net.
The best chance for the Bobcats to win the game came with 25 seconds left, as Durval Pereira Jr. fed Suprise just inside the box for an open look. The shot went wide, and the two teams went into overtime.
With the sudden death system at hand, no team took advantage of the two 10-minute overtime periods, and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.
For the game, Hall finished with seven saves, while his counterpart, Nils Binstock, finished with five saves for Iona.
The Bobcats are now 2-0-3 on the young season, and have five games remaining on their current six-game homestand.
The Bobcats return to action today against Stony Brook in a non-conference matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.
