Men's Soccer overcomes slow start to draw Bentley

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College men's soccer team dodged disaster, recovering from allowing two goals in a 65-second span to tie Bentley University 2-2 in Northeast-10 Conference play on Tuesday, October 17.

AIC is now 2-4-7 with a 2-2-2 NE10 mark.

The Falcons possessed the ball for much of the early going, and scored on the first shot on target, as Michael Cagno found Evan Levine open at 4:37. Barely a minute later, Bentley's Luke Hanchar headed home the corner kick of Michael Haikal, and just 5:42 into the game, the Yellow Jackets trailed by a pair.

AIC had time to recover, but needed to possess the ball and be more aggressive. The Yellow Jackets accomplished that and began tilting the field back in their favor, generating chance after chance. Ali Taleb nearly scored after stealing the ball away from a Bentley defender in the box in the 19th minute, but was turned aside by Joe Griffin. 

In the 29th minute, AIC broke the shutout. Our of a scramble in front on a corner kick, Guilherme Afonso whacked a rebound in from the left side of the box for his second of the season at 28:14.

The Yellow Jackets continued to play with confidence through the remainder of the half and into the second, and leveled the score. Afonso fired a quick pass immediately after a Bentley foul, finding Christian Amaral at the top of the box. He spun away back to the right and fired a rocket into the left corner of the net at 54:04 for his first of the season.

AIC had more chances, and the Falcons generated a few of their own late, but neither side struck again in the 2-2 tie.

The team next plays at Saint Anselm College on Saturday, October 21 at 1:00 p.m.