On Sept. 10, the ETSU men’s soccer team battled the No. 21 team in the country, Lipscomb University, to a 3-3 tie.
After a 1-4 loss to Marshall University earlier in the week, the Bucs were ready to recuperate and recharge for Friday’s game.
“When we lost on Tuesday it was against Marshall who’s a great team, so it’s not like it is a bad loss. I think it was a quick one to rebound from. We gave the guys a day off right after just so they could clear their heads,” said head coach David Casper. “And Thursday was a really focused training session. It was really talking about how we could get at Lipscomb.”
Five minutes and twenty-four seconds into the first half of the game sophomore Tarik Pannholzer (Flensburg, Germany) made the first goal and the only goal of the first half.
Lipscomb got their first goal in the second half after an elapsed 47:06. About ten minutes later, ETSU came back with their second goal scored by junior Lucas Lightner (Clarksville, Tennessee) with a follow-up goal no more than two minutes later from Pannholzer; making the score 3-1 ETSU.
After some time, Lipscomb scored a penalty kick followed shortly by another goal tying up the game. The game continued on to two overtime periods, officially ending the game as a tie 3-3.
ETSU vs. Lipscomb is a competitive, in-state rivalry game. In years past ETSU has had the favored outcome, but in the two most recent years Lipscomb took the win. ETSU, having Lipscomb back on their home field, was preparing for the fight, and while both teams fought hard, in the end, the game tied, leaving each other to prepare for the next matchup.
“It’s always a tough one. It was something we talked about, you know they did beat us the last two years, so it was important for us to take the game to them today and I thought we did that,” Casper said. “Unfortunately, our own errors cost us the win, but we did tie the number 21 team in the country, and that means we’re a pretty good team. I believe that we can do big things this year and I’m excited to go forward.”
