HOUSTON —- HCU dominated much of the night on both ends of the pitch, but a late equalizer by Southern Indiana forced a 1-1 draw at Awty Stadium on Thursday night.
The Huskies controlled the tempo on offense and didn't see a shot taken on their defense in the first half, but went to the intermission knotted nil-nil with the visitors from Evansville. HCU continued to push the pace and got several strong counter-attacks resulting in shots on goal, but to no avail early in the second half.
Just as the clock at Awty hit the 66th minute, the boys in blue would finally break through. A run by Kharel Medza down the left sideline turned into a nice ball to
Ryan Okerayi who then found
Jireh Oyebamiji on the left side of the box. The freshman from London would then poke a shot off his right shoe just past the keeper on the right side of the goal, giving the Huskies a much deserved 1-0 lead.
HCU would put a couple more chances on goal in the next few minutes, looking for a second. But after having not done much on the offensive end most of the night, the Screaming Eagles would then make the most of their one real run.
In the 82nd minute, Ednilson Voiles, just on the pitch going on nine minutes, found some space on the left side and lofted a cross just over the defense to the right side of the box. The perfectly placed pass found Zach Barton for a header to the bottom left corner just past the outstretched mitt of HCU keeper
Jordan Santa Cruz, giving USI their equalizer.
The Huskies outshot the Eagles 19-7 and had a 6-0 edge in corners. Oyebamiji led the club with his first goal of the campaign coming on five total shots, three coming on goal.
Ethan Giwa-McNeil had four shots and one on goal, and
Aldo Tarantini and
D'Alessandro Herrera each had two shots, one on goal.
Jordan Santa Cruz made his first career start in the woodwork, and had one save.
Zach Barton had the goal and two shots for the Eagles, now 1-8-1 overall and 0-2-1 in OVC play. Braden Matthews gave up the one goal and had seven saves.
HCU is now 2-5-4 on the season and 0-1-2 in the OVC. The Huskies will return to the pitch for another OVC tilt on Sunday afternoon when they host Eastern Illinois at 3:30 pm as part of a doubleheader with the HCU women, who host Northwestern State in Southland action. EIU fell 4-2 on Thursday in San Antonio to a surging Incarnate Word club to fall to 2-6-2 and 1-2-0 in OVC play.
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