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North rallies from 2-goal deficit to draw with Owatonna 4-4

By Dan McGill, Beat Reporter, 08/29/14, 10:15PM CDT

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Coming into this game, Lakeville North Boys Soccer was undefeated with a 2-0 record. They had defeated Rochester Mayo 1-0 and edged out Rochester Century 2-1 previously before their game Vs Owatonna.

 
The Panthers would find this game to be a very daunting task friday afternoon.
 
Abukar Fakrudin and Ryan Guenther scored the first two goals in the match for the Huskies and North found themselves down 2 goals in the first 15 minutes of the match. Just before halftime, Lakeville North's Josh Meyer chipped the ball over Goalkeeper Layne Frank to salvage a goal for the Panthers and cut the lead in half.
 
Coach Peter Tyma had some motivational words for the Panthers at halftime.
 
"At halftime we basically woke up when we scored a goal, and we asked ourselves, do we want to lose at home?" Tyma said. "It was reminding of where soccer is at, and what they can play, and what they can produce. Take the blame and start playing soccer is what I said."
 
Lakeville had to dig themselves out of another hole as captain Dexter Leer scored off a free kick, and extended Owatonna's lead to 3-1.
 
In the first half of the match, North's offensive attack was very unstable as they were only held to limited opportunities by the Huskies defense. That wouldn't be the case in the second half. The Panthers created better chances and shot the ball on target numerous times, only to be stopped by the goalkeeper Layne Frank. With less than 25 minutes left, Jorge Espinoza scored for Lakeville North after being assisted by the North goalkeeper, Matt Collins. At that point, it was game on for the Panthers, only trailing 3-2.
 
The goal scoring wouldn't stop for the Panthers. 
 
Josh Meyer netted his second goal of the day and North completed their comeback and sent the game into overtime with the score being, 3-3.
 
"We were down 3-1, and we were going to overtime", Tyma explained. "You could see that both teams were getting tired, and now it was who was going to fight harder to get through this." 
 
In the first 5-minute period of overtime, Owatonna won a controversial penalty kick that was eventually converted by the captain, Leer. For the third time in the game, the Panthers were trailing the Owatonna Huskies.
 
With nearly 4 minutes left in the last period of overtime, Jorge Espinoza volleyed a shot past the diving Frank, and equalized for the Panthers to send the score to 4-4. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they did not get another chance to score again but they settled for a staggering 4-4 draw with the Owatonna Huskies.
 
Despite the Panthers being down 2-0, and 3-1 in this game, Coach Tyma had a positive take on their rallied 4-4 comeback.
 
"Could we beat this team the next time we play(Owatonna)? Certainly", Tyma said. "They're(Owatonna) the defending section champs for a couple of years now. They've shown that they have it. So the fact that we could come back and tie after being down 2 goals twice, really means something. We are happy that we got the tie, and now we're focusing on conference play." 

Tag(s): Home  Soccer- Boys