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September 1, 2017
IRVINE, Calif. - The Penn State men's soccer team played UC Irvine to a 1-1 double overtime tie in its first road contest of the season Friday, Sept. 1 at Anteater Stadium.
Sophomore Aaron Molloy (Dublin, Ireland) netted his first career goal as a Nittany Lion (0-1-1) in the first half to give the Blue and White an early lead, while Penn State took 11 shots to mark the second time in as many games that it had 10-or-more shots.
Penn State opened up its attack early in the match as it put its first shot on goal in the first two minutes against the Anteater defense. Redshirt-senior Sam Bollinger (State College, Pa.) set up the offense in the 31st minute of the match when he passed the ball back to a striking Austin Maloney (Harrisburg, Pa.), who flicked the ball to the foot of Molloy. Molloy gathered the ball at his feet and curled a shot into the top right corner of the net, allowing Penn State to take the 1-0 advantage in the first half of action.
Both teams took five shots in the first 45 minutes of play with the Nittany Lions putting three shots on goal compared to UC Irvine's one.
UC Irvine put fresh legs on the field in the 60th minute of the match when a scrum in front of the net turned into an Anteater goal on a Christian Carrillo header down and into the bottom of the net to knot the match at 1-1 late in the half.
Neither team was able to generate any offense in the closing minutes of the match, sending it into overtime. Both teams continued to struggle to put anything together in the first 10 minute overtime period as the match headed into double overtime with the score knotted at 1-1.
The Anteaters looked to end the match in the third minute of the second overtime period with a hard shot off the right post. The Nittany Lions answered three minutes later with back-to-back shots from Christian Sload (Reading, Pa.) but the score remained deadlocked at 1-1 with four minutes to play.
Penn State saw one final opportunity in the closing minute of the match when it earned a corner kick, but an offside call would end the match with a 1-1 tie between the two squads.
The Nittany Lions will be back in action Sunday, Sept. 3 when they take on Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. ET.