Box Score
LANCASTER, Pa. – Sophomore Teddy Smith (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) scored a pair of first-half goals, but Gettysburg was unable to hold onto a 2-0 lead and came away with a 2-2 tie at Franklin & Marshall College Wednesday evening in a rematch of last season's Centennial Conference semifinals.
The last time the two teams met, the Bullets upset the Diplomats, ranked 11th at the time, 2-1 in overtime on the same field to advance to the Centennial Conference championship.
It was the fourth overtime match of the season for Gettysburg (4-3-3, 1-1-1 CC), which is now 0-1-3 in overtime affairs. Franklin & Marshall (4-4-1, 1-1-1 CC) was playing its first OT game of the year.
Just 53 seconds into the match, Smith took a pass from junior Ryan Peiffer (Doyletown, Pa./Central Bucks East) and – on the first shot of the night – deposited the ball into the lower left corner of the net from the center of the box for his first goal of the season.
Smith, who entered the game with one career goal to his credit, struck again in the 21st minute, diving to send home a header on a right-side cross from junior Geoff Menge (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West), as he posted his first collegiate multi-goal game.
The Bullets took the first four shots of the match, but the Diplomat offense found some life midway through the half. F&M nearly cut the lead in half in the 28th minute, when an Eric Elicker shot – the team's first of the night – hit the post. The Dips followed up with two more shots over the next four minutes, but neither of those were on goal either.
The Bullets finished with a 5-3 shot advantage in the opening half.
Franklin & Marshall answered quickly in the second half, as Giuseppe Bua struck a left-footed shot into the right corner just 1:22 seconds into the stanza. It was a sign of things to come for the Dips, who took the first four shots of the period before tying it up in the 64th minute, when Matt Krantz rifled a shot into the top right to make it a 2-2 game.
Gettysburg's first shot of the second half came in the 71st minute, when a Kyle DeBlois (Cranbury, N.J./Princeton) offering sailed wide. Less than a minute later, it was F&M that was on the offensive again, but senior goalie Adam Finkel (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) made his first save of the game on F&M's eighth shot of the night. Finkel also came up big late in the half, corralling a header in the 87th minute, which turned out to be the final shot of regulation.
The Dips out-shot the Bullets 6-2 in the second half.
In the first overtime, F&M had had some early opportunities, gaining two corner kicks in the first two minutes. However, the Diplomats were unable to get off a shot in the first bonus session. In the meantime, Gettysburg took a pair of shots late in the period, but Menge's attempt in the 95th minute was wide and a Chris Bayon (Langhorne, Pa./Lawrenceville School [N.J.] shot in the 99th minute drifted high.
Finkel snatched another save early in the second OT, stopping a Bua shot in the 102nd minute. Neither side managed another shot the rest of the way.
Finkel finished the evening with three saves while Zach Zamek stopped one shot for F&M.
Gettysburg returns to action on Saturday, when it hosts Swarthmore College at 7:30 p.m. in another Centennial Conference affair.
