HENRIETTA, NY – Trailing 2-1 in the waning moments, the University of Rochester men's soccer found a late equalizer with just 31 seconds to play to eke out a 2-2 draw against the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers in the annual Rochester Derby on Wednesday evening at Judson Stadium.
After Robin Giesing's 56th-minute, second-half score tied the game up at 1-all, the Tigers would take the lead on a free kick in the 84th minute. Tony Shin took the free kick for RIT, sending in a line-drive kick that Gabriel Zaninetti headed into the right, upper corner of the goal to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead with less than seven minutes to play.
However, Rochester would not go down without a fight, pushing forward and pressuring Kristian Dobbek and the Tigers' defense off a throw-in in the final moments off the second half.
Lucas Lee's initial attempt was blocked just past the 88-minute mark, while
Tomoki Hirayama made it way down the near sideline and put a shot on goal, but Dobbek came up with the save with 45 seconds to play.
Rochester kept possession, though, and set things up for one last attempt off another throw-in.
Off the throw-in,
Sebastian Ballesteros passed the ball into
Van Dietrich, who passed it right back from the edge of the box. Ballesteros made his way down the left wing and crossed the ball into the box, where
Daniel Steinacher, unmarked and right around the penalty spot, one-touched it into the back of the net to level the score at 2-all with a little more than 30 seconds remaining.
The Yellowjackets got on the scoreboard first in the 11th minute, when
Will Fallona headed in a right-wing cross from
Milos Bisenic to give Rochester a 1-0 lead.
Rochester nearly took the lead just over five minutes earlier, as a foul in the box gave the 'Jackets a free kick, but Dobbek saved Bisenic's attempt and header follow to keep UR from taking the lead, at least momentarily.
The 'Jackets and Tigers each had five shots, two of which were on goal, in the first half, with RIT holding a 11-10 edge overall on shots throughout the contest, with both teams putting five shots on goal.
URochester held the Tigers without a shot till the 27th minute, when Barry Duffy's shot was blocked, resulting in the first of two RIT corners. On the second, Shin's header sailed wide, while
Aidan Hartman was called upon to make his first of three saves in the 37th minute.
Just past the 36-minute mark, Hartman knocked away a left-wing shot from Eoin Stansfield, resulting in another Tigers' corner. While Hartman came up with another stop with a little over four minutes left in the first half on Adrian Sobczak's free kick from just outside the box.
The Yellowjackets would head into the halftime break with a 1-0 lead, but the Tigers answered early on in the second half on the counterattack.
Following the second of back-to-back URochester corners, Daniel Sucato stuck a long pass up the far side to Idriss Diallo, who beat his defender in a foot race to the far post and forced Hartman to come out of goal. That was all Diallo needed to play the ball into the box for Giesing, who finished off the counterattack to level the score at 1-1.
The score would then stay deadlocked at 1-1 till Zaninetti's 84th-minute goal, and then Steinacher's late tally to tie things up and give Rochester and RIT a 2-2 draw.
With the draw, both Rochester and RIT move to 3-4-4 on the season.
Individually, Bisenic and Fallona each had two shots, with Bisenic putting both of his on goal. In goal for the Yellowjackets, Hartman made three saves.
Rochester next resumes conference play on Saturday, Oct. 10, hosting the 20th-ranked New York University Violets at 11:00 a.m. inside Fauver Stadium.
