Point men’s soccer draws with Dalton

Published 10:47 pm Wednesday, September 11, 2019

WEST POINT — The Point University men’s soccer team (1-2-1) finished Wednesday evening’s game against Dalton State with a 2-2 draw.

“I felt like we played well,” Point University men’s head soccer coach Mark Wozniak said. “The red card in the game changed the momentum.”

The Skyhawks were down by a goal with 10:50 remaining in the first half when a Dalton State defender was carded a red after a tackle made just outside of the box. From that penalty into the intermission, Point had possession more than the visitors, getting up multiple shots. The closest shot came with 35 seconds to go, but Point came up short.

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Around the 30-minute mark in the second half, Facundo Palacio scored the first goal for the Skyhawks, electrifying the home crowd.

The game was evenly matched for the rest of the half until the go-ahead score rolled across the goal line for Point with 3:50 remaining in the match. The team and fans alike celebrated while Dalton State’s bench encouraged its teammates to keep the clock in mind and not give up.

“There was a lot of relief,” Wozniak said. “A lot of joy, just trying to make focus on making sure we see out.”

Dalton State ultimately struck the equalizer with 1:50 to go in regulation.

Point’s goalkeeper made a handful of key saves in the two overtime periods to prevent the road team from coming out on top. The match was physical and included many substitutions as time passed in overtime.

“It’s easy as the match gets physical to lose your emotions and it gets chippy,” Wozniak said. “It’s easy on tackles to get mad at the ref, but I felt like we handled ourselves and were able to keep ourselves relatively calm in the game. We made sure we focused on ourselves and did our job.”

The Skyhawks return to action on Saturday at home against Milligan College.