1 Defiance 1

We kick off against Defiance in our home opener in the HCAC knowing we'll face a challenge in contrasting styles of play. DU are very well organized defensively and will play directly up to a lone front on the counter. We will be missing Arsene Kabeya to illness and move Corey Campbell to left back in his place.

First half follows the plot as far as possession (largely us) and shots are 5-2 our way but good chances are few and it's 0-0 at the half. Second half starts well and the ball falls to Evan Elko after a corner in the 49th minute and Evan finishes for a 1-0 lead. Defiance ups the pressure on us and we don't respond too well. In the 78th minute they get a free kick from the side and score a header at the far post to get even. We recover fairly well and begin to apply pressure as they sit back a bit. With about 5 minutes to go Mussa Ibrahim gets through their defence on the left and plays Tamru in on the far post. Tamru's shot just misses and the game goes to overtime. Chris Marshall makes some significant saves to keep us level.

We continue to have the better of play in extra time, outshooting DU 4-0 in OT and 13-8 for the game. Tamru just misses wide early on and Felipe Buitrago almost scores in a scramble in front of their goal. The game ends a draw which we may look on as points dropped. We sustain a couple of significant injuries; Frank Mbaya goes out for the last 15 minutes of the first half after being cleated and Zander Ansara goes out in the second half with the same injury. Alex Ferreira steps in for both and ends up playing right midfield, right back and center back in the same game---some kind of record. Frank is OK going forward but Zander may have to sit.

We're now 6th in conference at 0-0-2 and 2 points and the relocation of this weekends Bluffton game to Earlham because of field issues at Bluffton means we really have to get 3 points out of a game soon.