Saint Louis University’s Eric Sweetin (left) takes down SMU’s Bruno Guarda (right) in the penalty box during the second half of Friday night’s game. The take down resulted in a penalty kick in which Guarda scored the Mustangs’ lone goal of the night. (John Schreiber)
The SMU men’s soccer team tied the St. Louis Billikens 1-1 on Friday after playing two scoreless overtimes. The Mustangs had many different scoring opportunities but could not find the back of the net for most of night.
The first 45 minutes of the game were slow, considering there were only two shots during the entire half, both by the Mustangs. The Mustangs did have three corner kicks that came close to finding players but barely missed. Even though the game pace was quick and the action was physical, the first half ended in a scoreless tie.
After the break, the Billikens came out running and scored the first goal of the game in the 51st minute. Junior midfielder Dado Hamzagic scored when he put back his own rebound after the SMU defensive line misread the ball.
After the goal, SMU attacked the Billikens after they dropped nine men behind the midfield line and stalled the action at all costs. The backfield was a congested nightmare for the next 20 minutes that culminated when junior Manuel Mariel received a red card for a tackle on the Billikens’ back line.
Even though the Mustangs were down a man, they continued making long runs and serving penetrating diagonal balls. The game looked bleak for SMU until junior midfielder Bruno Guarda was fouled in the box during the 84th minute. Guarda gave a slight fake to the left and struck the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal for the equalizer.
Regulation ended with the game tied at one goal apiece. The rules on overtime change nearly every year, but this year overtime consists of two 10-minute sudden death periods. With the Mustangs down a man and the Billikens playing for the tie, overtime was relatively actionless compared to the second half. The game ended in a tie after 110 minutes.
Junior midfielder Jeff Harwell hit most of the free kicks during the game with pinpoint precision. Most of SMU’s set plays were innovative and came close to netting a couple goals.
Harwell explained how “on set plays, we were trying to attack the Billikens with everything we had.” Harwell thought “we could have played better team defense, but overall played a tough, competitive game.”
The entire game was physical with St. Louis topping the Mustangs in the foul department 30-12. The SMU defense had a decent game considering the Billikens shot only twice on senior goalie Steve Sandbo and the Mustangs lost two key defenders from last year’s team.
On Friday Sept. 7, Westcott Field plays host to the Mi Cocina Classic which features No. 5 Virginia, No. 8 SMU, Georgetown and Tulsa. The action starts at 5 p.m. when Tulsa takes on Georgetown. After that game, SMU squares off against Virginia at 7:30 p.m.
