Overtime Heart Breaker

Wow.  I feel like I owe my computer an apology for the amount of cursing and verbal abuse that I threw at it tonight.  Following a double overtime game on live stats certainly doesn't bring out the best in us...  Thanks to great live stats provided by Florida Gulf Coast Athletics and more importantly Asst. Coach Cory Robertson providing some post-game clarification, here is the best summary I can come up with.

Final score of the game after 110minutes of play was 1-1.  Florida Gulf Coast took the lead in the 57th minute on a penalty kick.  Baf tied the game in the 79th minute with a fantastic free kick from ten yards outside the eighteen and in front of the Drexel bench.  Nate Page had his potentiality game winning penalty kick saved in the 106th minute to leave the game tied 1-1 at the end of double overtime (about the time when I punted both my cats across the room...).

Freshman goalkeeper Pentti Pussinen delivered a phenomenal performance, making crucial saves in the second half and overtime.  Doug picked up his second yellow card in two matches.  This time for his pet peeve, the referee not stopping the clock in the closing minutes of a half (A FGCU player kicked the ball away after Drexel had been awarded a free kick).  Some questions were raised about the referee by Asst. Coach Cory Robertson, especially on both yellow card penalty kicks (Drexel's Matt DiDomenico 57th min, & FGCU's Matt Oshaughnessy in the 106th).  Both were in his opinion - "Weak, and influenced by the crowd more than the game."  Brandon Zeller also picked up a yellow card in the 64th minute.  Although Drexel was slightly outplayed, particularly in the first half, the Dragons managed to regain momentum and settle for a tie after a superb free kick by Anthony Bafile.  Unfortunately we narrowly missed out on another dramatic late game winner when Page's pk was saved .

Drexel now 4-0-1 on the season will rest up and prepare to play No.24 South Florida this Saturday (who just defeated No.9 Ohio State state in their first game of the tournament).  Make sure to put your cats in the other room before watching the LIVE STATS of the Drexel -vs- USF game this Saturday @ 5:00pm, its gonna be a thriller.


MAN OF THE MATCH:  Anthony Bafile - for an absolute sniper shot on a free kick  (rattling the upper 90 back corner) to tie the game 1-1 in the 79th minute.  Baf's electric goal shifted the momentum of the match and sent the first game of Drexel's Florida trip into overtime.  There is a reason my man is a now 3 year captain of the team.  Solid, dedicated, reliable and a hell of a player.  

Check out the official game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com.