The Oswego State men’s soccer team ended things evenly when they tied with the Elmira College Soaring Eagles, 1-1 on Sept. 7, at Laker Turf Stadium. This marks the second stalemate of the season for the Lakers, which brings their record to 0-1-2.

The first half was headlined by aggressive, hard-nosed defense from both squads. Despite several attempts from the Lakers at generating noise on offense, the Eagles’ backend stood tall. Ian Husselbeck, Tajay Ellis and Marcus Baker took their chances on net, but opposing goalie, Ruiz Arturo Martin, was a force to be reckoned with inside the box.

It was not until late in the half when the scoreboard was lit up for the first time as Hernan Arenas of the Eagles connected on a strike to give his group a one goal lead in the 41st minute.

In the face of adversity coming out of the tunnel, the Lakers entered the final 45 determined to even things up. The second half reflected what transpired within a great majority of the first – stout, brick-wall style defense with one group not allowing the other to gain any sort of edge.

Things got chippy late into the period when Tajay Ellis received a yellow card in the 84th minute. The Lakers continued to cycle through shot-takers from there, but no answer was to be heard on their end until there was less than 10 seconds left in the contest.

At 89:54, Ellis came back with a chip on his shoulder and sniped one just past Martin to knot it all up at one goal apiece. The final six seconds was run down from there and a tie went in the books.

The Lakers once again struggled to put a win in the column in their next matchup as they fell 2-0 to the University of Rochester Yellowjackets on Sept. 10, at Laker Turf Stadium, to render them 0-2-2 on the season.

The Lakers failed to find their footing on offense in the early stages of the game and conditions worsened in the 23rd minute when forward, Tajay Ellis, took a blow to the lower body and was forced to leave the contest. Things remained rather grim for the Lakers from there as the opposition swiftly denied any sort of offensive momentum.

Things continued to look up for the Yellowjackets, though, as in the 33rd minute, Sebastian Ballesteros tacked on the first goal of the game to give his squad a 1-0 lead.

The Lakers applied a tighter defense in the second half and found themselves able to develop more chances at net on the other side, but the end result was not ideal. Jason Wuytack and Edis Omerovic had their opportunities on goal, but both of their shots were swiftly shunned away by keeper Ben Ziegler, who put on a wonderful showing for the full 90.

The Yellowjackets struck when midfielder, Jasper Danielian, found a sweet spot to extend his team’s lead to two goals in the 59th minute. The Lakers struggled to keep up with the pace from there as the offensive remained stagnant for the final 30 minutes, which ultimately contributed to the 2-0 loss.

“I think we certainly have to improve our press and when we have those opportunities to win it,” head coach, Dan Kane, said. “Then we have to commit numbers, energy and passion to take the ball out and look to play forward to create some more chances.”

The Lakers are on the road for their next matchup as they will travel to Troy, N.Y. to take on the Rochester Polytechnic Institute Engineers on Saturday, Sept. 13, as they seek out their first victory of the season.