The Slippery Rock University men’s soccer team finished in a 0-0 draw at California University (Pa.) Tuesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play.
With the tie, Slippery Rock extends its unbeaten streak to two games, its overall record to 1-2-1 and PSAC record to 1-0-1. California moves to 3-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in PSAC play. Tuesday’s draw was the first tie for The Rock since the 2013 season (42 games).
SRU has allowed just two goals in its first four games, tying the second lowest total amount of goals allowed through four games since 1983; the 2009 SRU team only gave up one goal to start the season.
Junior Kyle Boyer tallied a team-high three shots, one on goal, against California. Sophomores Justin Minda and George Oakley and junior Adolfo Segura also had shots with Segura’s lone attempt being on goal as well.
Junior Steven Rerick started his first game of the season in goal and made five saves to help The Rock preserve the draw. Rerick is now 2-0-1 all-time against California with 17 saves and one goal allowed over 290 minutes versus the Vulcans.
Slippery Rock kept California, which entered the game ranked fourth in the PSAC in goals scored, in check as they successfully cleared the Vulcan’s first two corners while giving up just one shot on goal, a header by Mike Cummings that was saved by Rerick in the 22nd minute. After 45 minutes of play, Slippery Rock and California headed into halftime in a scoreless tie.
The Vulcans tallied three shots and a corner over the opening 20 minutes of the second half, but SRU was once again able to defend the corner while Rerick stopped one of the shots to keep the game tied up at the 61:22 mark.
The Rock was able to tally three shots around the 70th minute, but two of them were blocked by Vulcan defenders and the goaltender stopped the third one attempted by Boyer, as the contest remained scoreless with under 14 minutes to play.
Rerick stopped two late shots by California to send the game into overtime.
Slippery Rock earned a corner kick 56 seconds into the opening overtime period, but was unable to turn it into a scoring opportunity. The Vulcans answered back with a corner of their own, which led to a shot by Cummings that was saved by Rerick to keep The Rock alive and send the game into a second overtime.
Boyer got off the only two shots for either team in the second overtime, but both attempts went wide as The Rock and Vulcans settled for a tie and one point each in the conference standings.
Slippery Rock continues PSAC play 1 p.m. Saturday at No. 25 Millersville University.
