CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team battled to a draw to start ASUN play, dueling the Royals of Queens to a 1-1 score.
Maxim Sheenkov scored the lone goal for the Bears, equalizing right before halftime to get Central Arkansas a point in the early ASUN table. The Bears move to 1-5-2 overall on the season.
Queens burst out of the gate, scoring in just the fourth minute to snag an early lead. The home team continued to apply pressure, seeking an early advantage even after scoring.
Devonte Richards provided the first on-target threat of the night for the Bears, putting a shot on goal in the 19
th minute, but the Royals keeper parried it to keep the Bears scoreless.
The sides went back and forth over the first half, pushing the ball forward into dangerous spots, but defenses and keepers were locked in, repelling all comers as attacks continued flying both ways. With just a few minutes before half,
Aby Gomez punched a shot from left to right, but bounced it off the post. Sheenkov, however, was right there, corralling it and finishing past the Queens keeper to level the score at the break.
After halftime, Central Arkansas controlled much of the possession, searching for a gap in the defense to take advantage of.
Noa Bamballi, in particular, put a ton of pressure along the left side of the attack, dribbling time after time into the box, but the Queens defense did a good job bending without breaking, repeatedly sending the ball out for the Bears to rebuild the attack.
Queens countered midway through the second half, but were largely unable to create too many threats that put the Bears in too many difficult positions. Still missing some starters, the Bears defense kept the Royals mostly to the wings, limiting the home team to wide-angled shots that never really tested
Merrick Cook in goal. The best chances of the second half for Queens came with less than four minutes to go, when the home side got back-to-back point blank looks that Cook stopped, essentially icing the match at a draw.
Pietro Fontana put one last shot on goal with seconds left, but it went straight to the Royals keeper.
The Bears dip back out of non-conference on Tuesday, facing off with Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. in Tulsa.
