Slippery Rock men’s soccer team faced off against Robert Wesleyan University at home on Wednesday, ending in a 1-1 draw.
The Rock struck first, with Kaden Reynolds scoring just 31 seconds into the match. Troy Nine and Aashi Pandher each picked up an assist while setting Reynolds up for the early score.
The assist from Nine served as the first point from a Slippery Rock goalkeeper since 2015, when Kyle Hoffer’s 90th minute game-tying goal helped secure a double overtime victory against Shippensburg University.
Reynolds’ early net was recorded as the fastest-scored goal for the SRU men’s team since 2005, when single-game records first became documented.
The Redhawks’ second shot of the game resulted in their only goal, which was netted by Noah Kaczanowski off a rebounded shot attempt from Ewan O’Dwyer-Hall in the 22nd minute to eliminate SRU’s lead, with the former recording an assist on the play.
Slippery Rock came just short of a game winning score off the foot of Lonjard in the 77th minute, when he hit the goal post from inside of the box.
Both teams failed to score again for the remainder of the match.
Reynolds led The Rock in shots, having five with three of those being shots on goal. Caleb Alldredge, Massimo Cuda and Gaben Lonjard had two shot attempts each, with Johnathan Anthony, Ryan Hanes and Pandher all recording one.
Davi Moretzsohn and Kaczanowski both led Robert Wesleyan logging two shots each, with O’Dwyer-Hall being the only other Redhawk to attempt one.
As a team, The Rock nearly tripled Robert Wesleyan’s number of shots, outshooting RWU 14-to-5. Despite this, SRU was held to only three shots on goal, while all shot attempts by the Redhawks’ were on target.
Nine finished the game recording four saves, with three in the first period and one in the second, to match his career-high.
This effort was enough for Nine to receive his second consecutive Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division Defensive Athlete of the Week award, announced by the conference on Monday. The junior from Lansdale, Pennsylvania is the first player in program history to earn a PSAC weekly award in back-to-back weeks.
With the tie, SRU currently sits at 1-1-2 overall on the young season. Slippery Rock will take to the road for their next four games, starting on Sept. 16 when they travel to Amherst, New York to face Daemon University in a non-conference matchup.
