Late Goal Earns Warriors Draw at Hastings

HASTINGS, Neb. – Midland University traveled to take on Hastings College in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) matchup on Wednesday Night. After falling behind twice in the match, a late goal earned the Warriors a 2-2 draw on the road against the Broncos.

It was a heated battle between the two conference rivals on the turf at Lloyd Wilson Field. Hastings took the lead early with a goal in the 25th minute. Moments later a pair of yellow cards were issued, one to each side.

Ten minutes later, the Warriors' Ryan Lea was sent off after picking up his second yellow card of the contest. Midland regrouped and scored a game-tying goal with 40 seconds on the clock as Thomas Gibson found the feet of Diego Saenz to put it in the back of the net.

Following the goal, emotions spiked as more cards were issued. A yellow was handed out to one player from each team and then a red was issued to a Broncos player who retaliated with an unsportsmanlike play. At the half, the Warriors and Broncos were knotted at 1-1.

After nearly 30 minutes of play in the second half, Hastings regained its lead 2-1 with a goal in the 74th minute.

Looking to make a comeback, the Warriors got a chance as Lucas Foreman fired a shot on a one-on-one chance with the keeper. His initial shot hit the post but he was quick to collect the ball. He flicked it over the off-balanced defender to pull the game even at 2-2 in the 86th minute.

The game would remain deadlocked as neither side could put together a scoring attempt over the final few minutes.

Marco Moresco earned the draw, going the full 90 minutes and picking up five saves on the night.

The result earns the Warriors a much-needed conference point on the road with six games left in the regular season.

"I'm really proud of the boys. We went down twice but never gave up," commented head coach Josh Nakayama after. "We emphasize team and building on positivity. Our focus is being 'One Heart, One Mind,' and we saw that tonight. We made mistakes, but we never dropped our faith that we could come back. We have to build off of this momentum."

Midland (3-6-2, 1-2-2 GPAC) will return to home turf to take on Northwestern (8-3-1, 4-1-1 GPAC) in a conference matchup. The match is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 7 at Heedum Field in Fremont.