CONWAY, Ark. – Despite falling behind early, the Central Arkansas men's soccer team recovered in time to get a draw against Bellarmine. It maintained a couple of streaks for the Bears, who stay unbeaten in both matches against Bellarmine and ASUN openers since joining the league.
 
The decision moves the Bears to 1-4-2 on the season, now 0-0-1 in the ASUN. Andres Robles tallied his first goal in Purple and Gray to level the game, helping make Saturday's match exciting from start to finish and becoming the third Bear to score this season.
 
As it always does with Bellarmine, possession was back and forth early in the match as both teams sought to gain an advantage. Tajio James took the first shot of the match in the second minute, but it was blocked before it could pose much of a threat. Bellarmine wouldn't take a shot until finding the perfect opportunity, capitalizing poor clearance to get on the board in the 17th minute.
 
Bellarmine almost added to the lead in the 21^st minute, getting a pair of shots off that would be blocked and then hit high right, respectively. Sohma Ichikawa forced a save from the Knight goalkeeper a few minutes later, nearly equalizing in the 26^th. But the Bears weren't finished, equalizing eight minutes later. If stats allowed it, there could have been three assists, a beauty of a play starting with a deep ball by Nicholas Rahman to Ichikawa. Fighting to get the ball centralized, Ichikawa popped it over a defender to Pietro Fontana, who made the critical touch pass to a streaking Robles, who finished into the bottom right corner.
 
The Knights nearly took the lead back right before halftime, with a shot needing a defender to clear it off the line to keep it out of the goal, sending the teams into the break knotted at 1-1. Central Arkansas was trailing at the half five shots to six, but had four corner kicks compared to zero for Bellarmine.
 
Central Arkansas came out of the half swinging, driving down the field and getting a shot in the first few minutes of the frame, with Devonte Richards slamming a shot that got blocked, and James forcing another save by the Knights. But the momentum started to shift in favor of Bellarmine, as the Knights started pressing into their attacking third, but the Bears held firm on defense. Central Arkansas would get a couple more quality chances late, but ultimately, possession largely stayed out of dangerous positions, sending the teams down to the wire tied at one score.
 
The Bears extended their unbeaten streak against the Knights to five games, tying for the second time in the series. The team also stays undefeated in ASUN openers, now in their third season in the league. Connor Wachtel again had a terrific outing, playing well beyond the numbers on the stat sheet. The keeper punched out a dozen or more opportunities for the Knights, rejecting serves into the box and corner kicks alike.
 
Central Arkansas takes the field again next Saturday, staying at home to take on Queens. Last time against the Royals, Fontana and the Bears led a massive comeback in the final ten minutes, stealing one on the road. Game time against Queens is set for 2 p.m.