POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The Pearl River men's soccer team knew it had to dig deep after falling into an early 2-0 deficit against Hinds Friday night at the PRCC Soccer Complex, and in one of the gustiest performances of the year, the Wildcats crawled back to pull out a 2-2 draw.
"They're a talented team that we dropped a match to earlier this season. I think we were creating a lot of chances. We had loads of shots," head coach Drew Gallant said. "We were making some changes on the fly, and the guys adapted. (Assistant Coaches) Joe (Guinchard) and Brandon (Butler) had the idea to go with two forwards up top, which was a great look. We really changed things up in the second half."
MATCH RECAP
The first nine minutes of the match were largely dominated by Pearl River (2-4-1 overall; 1-1-1 MACCC), as the Wildcats maintained most of the possession. Noah Nymark (Farsoe, Denmark; Handelsgymnasiet Turoegade) made one of his best saves of the year in the 10th minute, diving to his left for a save and pushing it out of bounds. On the ensuing corner kick, the ball rattled around inside the box, but the Wildcats cleared it from danger.
Three minutes later, Hinds struck with a goal to take the early advantage. Tiago Honorio Jr. (São Paulo, Brazil; Zacarias Antônio da Silva) almost equalized for the Wildcats in the 26th minute as he found some space outside the box and sent a laser toward the goal. The ball had a little too much air on it and went just above the crossbar.
Hinds (4-1-3; 1-0-2) caught the Wildcats on the counterattack in the 31st minute, using stellar build-up play to finally place a ball into the back of the net, 2-0.
Just before the half ended, Jason Irias (D'Iberville) moved the ball up the left side of the pitch from his left-back position and played a great cross into the middle of the field. Christopher Dommer (Copenhagen, Denmark; Øregård Gymnasium) flew into the box and got a foot on the ball, but it went out of bounds.
Joel Morales (Gulfport) added a scoring chance for PRCC in the 55th minute as he fired a shot on goal, but the Eagle goalkeeper made a great diving save to end the threat.
Pearl River finally sliced into the lead in the 67th minute as Dommer got a ball into the back of the net, making it a 2-1 match.
Dommer showed that he had ice in his veins in the 87th minute of the match. A long pass into the middle to Kristoff Graham (Clarendon, Jamaica; Clarendon College) was settled and saw Graham push forward. The freshman quickly dished off to Dommer, whose original shot was saved by the HCC keeper. The ball rebounded out, and Dommer never missed a beat, tracking down the loose ball to place it into the back of the net.
The late Dommer goal was the last score of the match as the Wildcats walked away with a hard-fought 2-2 draw with the Eagles.
NEXT UP
Pearl River hits the road on Tuesday to face off with Itawamba. Kickoff in Fulton is set for 7 p.m. The match will be livestreamed at LetsGoICCTV.com.
For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on Twitter (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).