Cardinals forced to settle for 1-1 tie at Juniata

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The Cardinals earned another point in the Landmark Conference standings on Saturday as CUA tied Juniata 1-1 in double overtime.  Ian Smith scored the Cardinals goal in the 17th minute of play as their record moves to 5-5-2 on the season.

CUA dominated Juniata statistically, taking 34 shots to the home team's 17.  The Cardinals were awarded eight corner kicks, and the Eagles had just one.

Quinn Daly made six saves for the Cardinals and Ezra Cassel stopped 17 shots for the Eagles.

"It's frustrating when you have 34 shots and can only get one goal," CUA head coach Travis Beauchamp said afterwards.  "I thought their goalkeeper played excellent, give him credit, but we had plenty of chances today, we just couldn't finish."

He continued, "We had the ball in the box, at our feet, we just couldn't put one in and that's tough to see.  I told the guys afterwards, I thought we played well. But, the most important stat is goals and we didn't get enough of them today, so we'll continue to work on our finishing."

CUA came out and began firing from the start, with Smith taking the first shot just 3:40 in.  Kevin Duffy took the Cardinals' second shot at the 6:08 mark, but Cassel made the save. 

The Cardinals stayed on the attack and got on the board in the 17th minute when Smith took a feed from Mike DiMarco and found the back of the net to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Even with the lead CUA remained aggressive as Adrian Davis took a shot at the 19:15 mark, which went wide and Mike Brennan tried his hand two minutes later, but his shot was high.

The Cardinals had one more shot in the half, which came from Ben Fernandez, but the score remained 1-0 as the teams headed into halftime.

There were six fouls whistled on the teams in the first eight minutes of the second half before anyone took a shot.  Brennan got the first attempt off soon after, but it went wide, as did Duffy's attempt seconds later.

The shots kept coming for CUA, but the Cardinals were just not able to capitalize on their chances, as the score remained 1-0.

The Eagles evened things up at one in the 77th minute when Luke Waddell netted an unassisted score, setting up an exciting last few minutes of regulation. 

The Cardinals took five more shots on goal in the final 11 minutes of play, but Cassel was up to the challenge on each, sending the teams into overtime.  "To give up a counter goal late in the game was tough," Beauchamp said.  "To say it's a pretty frustrating tie would put it lightly."

In the first extra session CUA continued to control the action as the Cardinals were awarded two corner kicks and got off two shots, but the score was still tied at one after ten minutes of play. 

The second overtime saw more of the same as the Cardinals got off six shot attempts, but were unable to score, sending them to their second straight tie versus a conference foe.

CUA will return to the pitch on October 13 when the Cardinals travel to take on McDaniel.  Game time is slated for 3:30.