Springfield, Mass. - October 20, 2012 - The Springfield College men's soccer team earned an important point in league play as it battled to a scoreless draw with Babson College in a rematch of last season's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Irv Schmid Sports Complex.
Springfield is now 5-9-2, 2-2-1 in conference play and has gone 3-1-1 in its last five outings. Babson, which came into the game ranked sixth in this week's NCAA New England Regional rankings, is now 11-3-2, 4-0-1 in league action.
For the game, Springfield owned an 11-9 advantage in shots and took 13 of the game's 16 corner kicks.
Both teams had a pair of prime scoring chances in the opening 45 minutes of play. Springfield’s came in at the 29:17 mark on a beautiful strike by Alex Reilly. The senior received the ball from 25 yards out and blasted a ball on goal, only to have Jackson Klein gets his fingertips on it, pushing away a save that glanced off the cross bar.
The Beavers nearly scored 2:09 later on a scramble in front of the net. A deep cross towards the back post found a wide open Bryan Rust, who poked a shot toward an open net. However, John Mankus was parked on the goal line and cleared out the dangerous bid.
The Beavers nearly struck in similar fashion with just over 11 minutes left in regulation. Following a close bid from Ayo Iwuagwa, Mankus once again cleared the shot off the line to keep it scoreless.
Babson nearly ended the game with 20 seconds left in the first overtime. Mike Fischer collected a bouncing ball in the six yard box and fired a shot towards goal, but Schmid was able to deflect it away.
The game's final solid scoring chance came from Springfield 1:30 in the final overtime session. David Chessen got free in transition off a great look from Kevin Nowak, but Klein was up to the task, charging off his line to get a piece of the shot that went just wide of the left post.
Klein finished with six saves in goal for Babson, while Schmid had just one in the shutout.
The Pride will play its final non-conference game on Tuesday when it travels to play Western Connecticut at 7:00 pm.
Steffen Siebert enters his second season at the helm of the Springfield College men's soccer program in the fall of 2013. After three seasons as an assistant coach, Siebert led the Pride to its second-straight trip to the NEWMAC Championship in his first season. Read more.