Lakeland College

Lakeland men finish in 1-1 tie with Rockford

Athletics - posted on 9/15/2012

Despite dominating play for much of the match the Lakeland College men's soccer team was only able to manage a 1-1 tie with Rockford College Saturday afternoon in its Northern Athletics Conference opener.

The Regents scored with less than five minutes in regulation, than held on through two 10-minute overtime periods for a point in the conference standings. Lakeland picked up a point as well and is now 1-2-1 overall on the season.

The Muskies outshot Rockford 24-7 for the match. The score was 0-0 at halftime though and the game remained scoreless until Daiya Akiyama (Sr.-Ichihara, Japan) scored his first goal of the season with an assist from Farouk Dadzie (Jr.-Milwaukee, Wis.) in the 60th minute to put Lakeland ahead.

The Muskies looked to be in good shape to make that lead stand up, but Rockford's Neil Moallem scored unassisted in the 86th minute to tie it. The match went into overtime and Lakeland had several chances to win it, including a shot from straight on by Akiyama late in the second overtime that went just high.

Alex Piekarski (Sr.-Menasha, Wis.) made three saves in goal for Lakeland, while Mick Goulding made ten saves for Rockford. Paul Elzinga (So.-Howards Grove, Wis.) led the Muskies offensively with seven shots (four on goal) while Akiyama added five shots and Killian McKenzie (Jr.-Oshkosh, Wis.) four. Brandon Barry (So.-Lake Geneva, Wis.) also took three shots.

The Muskies return to the field Sunday at home to face Robert Morris University-Lake County (Ill.) for a non-conference match at 3 p.m.