OFFICIAL BOX SCORE

The Baruch Bearcats and NYU Violets played to a 1-1 non-conference draw on Wednesday night at the Met Oval in Maspeth, New York.

The Bearcats (0-0-2) jumped on the scoreboard first at the 20:52 mark of the opening half. Aykan Yurdacan (Istanbul, Turkey/Abraham Lincoln) took advantage of a defensive miscue inside the box and punched home a loose ball to give Baruch the early advantage.

Freshman Ibek Abdrahmanov (Brooklyn, N.Y./James Madison), one of the many young Baruch players recording their collegiate debuts, started the action by attempting a shot from the top of the box. The defense failed to clear the rebound and that enabled Yurdacan to easily score his third collegiate goal in two years.

NYU (0-2-1) scored their first goal of the season at the 68:42 mark of the second half on a well-placed corner kick into the box by Brandon Hintz (London, UK/American School of London) that met Branden Neal (Yarmouth, Maine/Yarmouth) with a header for the tying goal.

The visitors from NYU led all evening in the shot category (30-7), but did not truly come to life until Neal's goal 23 minutes into the second half.

The Violets had an opportunity to take the lead in the 85th minute, but a hard shot by Robert Keller (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme) hit the cross bar to the disappointment of the NYU bench.

Junior Nelson DiBastiano (Rego Park, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) had another solid evening in front of the net defensively for the Bearcats with nine saves.

The men's soccer team will travel this weekend to Buffalo, New York for a non-conference encounter against Medaille College from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. First kick on Saturday is scheduled for 7:00 pm.