Long Island Ties Sacred Heart, 2-2 in NEC Battle

10-9-2004 -- Long Island men’s soccer and Sacred Heart battled back and forth over the full 110 minutes on Friday afternoon in a thrilling Northeast Conference midseason contest.

Both teams netted goals in the final three minutes of regulation to push the game into overtime. The Pioneers struck first in the 11th minute when Ricarti Mendes blasted a shot from the 30-yards for a 1-0 lead. The team played even for the rest of the half with each side garnering just three shots.

LIU put the offensive pressure on in the second half, knotting the game in the 58th minute when junior Mustapha Ayoub (Toronto, Canada) was able to gain control in the box off a free kick and crossed the ball toward a waiting Norman LeVesuque (Yucaipa, Calif.) at the front of the net. LeVesque quickly deposited his shot in the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

From there the two teams seemed destined to play into overtime at 1-1, until the 87th minute when Mendes punched his second goal of the day into the far corner for a 2-1 advantage.

LIU would not be denied as they stormed right back just 1:02 later as senior Josh Couvillion (New Orleans, La.) played the ball into the box to sophomore Omer Rozen (Hoshofet, Israel) who was able to get a foot on the ball and chip it over Pioneer keeper Matt Weston once again knotting the game up.

Both teams played very defensive in both overtime periods with the Blackbirds managing the only shot of the extra sessions. LIU moves to 3-3-3 overall and 2-0-1 in the league play while SHU is now 1-7-1 and 0-2-1 in the NEC.

Next up for the Blackbirds is a non-conference game on Tuesday at New Jersey Institute of Technology at 6:30 pm.