Hawks tie LaGrange to close out men’s soccer season

By Chuck Tidmore

Sports Information Intern

LAGRANGE, Ga. – The Huntingdon men's soccer team took the lead early on Wednesday but had to settle for a 2-2 tie in double overtime against LaGrange College.

Huntingdon built a 2-0 lead in the first half and maintained the lead until the second half. But LaGrange (1-15-2, 0-9-1) answered with a goal in the 62nd minute and another in the 64th minute to tie the game.

The tie kept the Hawks (2-10-5, 1-6-3 USA South) from advancing to the USA South Athletic Conference tournament. The Hawks needed a win on Wednesday to secure the final spot in the tournament.

"We saw both of our teams today," Huntingdon head coach Matt Williams said. "We saw the young, exciting team that started with a goal in the first 30 seconds and the young, naive team that had never been in this type of situation before and let momentum play its part. This is going to hurt for a long time, but we will pick ourselves up and build off of all the positives we've seen throughout the season."

Brendon Van Emelen opened the scoring for Huntingdon, on an assist from Killian Delmore, just thirty-two seconds into the game. Jared Bodenbender added to the lead with a penalty kick in the 34th minute.

In addition to his goal, Van Emelen led the Hawks with three shots, including two shots on goal. Dylan Wier had two shots on goal and Bodenbender, Zach den Besten and Delmore each had one shot on goal.

Keeper Alex Brown recorded eight saves and allowed two goals.