Geoducks, Mountaineers Battle to 1-1 Draw
OLYMPIA – The Evergreen State College and Eastern Oregon battled to a 1-1 double overtime men's soccer draw in the Cascade Collegiate Conference opener for both teams played Friday afternoon at Geoduck Pitch.
The Geoducks (1-0-1 overall, 0-0-1 CCC) weathered a strong Eastern Oregon (5-0-1, 0-0-1) attack in the first half and finally broke the scoreless deadlock with a goal at the 70:33 mark. Jordan Zimmerman, up from his central defender spot for a corner kick, got his head on a Ryan Porch cross and nodded the ball back over the head of Mountaineers keeper Alfredo Lara and into the goal. The tally was the second of the season for Zimmerman, a sophomore from Olympia.
Evergreen had another great scoring opportunity before that, in fact inside the first minute of the second half when a long ball over the top found Juan Oropeza behind the Mountaineers defense. Oropeza was brought down in the box, but Crisantos Chavez missed over the cross bar on the resulting penalty kick.
Eastern Oregon knotted the score at 1-1 in the dying minutes when a deflected Osvaldo Martinez free kick ricocheted to Elvis Pavon, who stabbed the ball home from about six yards out. The score came at the 87:46 mark and sent the contest into two 10-minute overtime periods.
The Mountaineers got off one shot in the first overtime period while the Geoducks managed two in the second extra stanza. Neither Evergreen nor Eastern Oregon scored, however, and that brought the tense battle to a draw.
Eastern Oregon managed 14 shots to six for Evergreen, and it also had a 7-6 advantage in corner kicks. Geoducks keeper Ben Stevenson was solid between the pipes with seven saves, while Lara managed two saves for the visitors.
Both teams return to conference action tomorrow, Evergreen hosting Warner Pacific and Eastern Oregon playing at Northwest.