UTICA, N.Y. - The Bard College men's soccer team settled for a hard-fought 1-1 draw after 110 minutes of action at SUNY Poly Sunday afternoon.

For a second straight day, the Raptors had to endure harsh midday heat, as well as an offensive onslaught. SUNY Poly outshot Bard 17-7 and absolutely dominated the corner kick count, 20-1. The Raptors bent, but did not break though, as the squad nearly snagged the win late.

While the Wildcats controlled the offensive tempo much of the game, Bard got on the score sheet first, thanks to Bobby Knoth's first collegiate goal. In the 40th minute, Knoth received a pass from Naka O'Connor inside the box and was able to slot it past Poly's keeper to the bottom left.

The Raptors held that lead into halftime, before the Wildcats knotted things up early in the second half. In the 58th minute, Benjamin Alonge (Elmont, NY) sent a cross in and found Rajiv Lama (Bauda, Nepal) waiting in the box. Lama was able to push it past Logan Leppo to tie the game at 1-1.

Over the rest of the game, Bard's defense locked in and was able to stop Poly's offense, countering when the chance presented itself. The Raptors nearly won late, but had a goal disallowed during the final minutes of regulation due to a foul in the box. In the first overtime, Bard had three straight shots stopped at point-blank range over a 10-second span as neither defense was willing to concede the game.

In the end, neither side broke defensively and settled for the 1-1 draw. With the result, the Raptors are now 3-3-1, while the Wildcats are 2-0-2.  Leppo finished with two saves, while Nathan Laughlin (Cohoes, NY) tallied two saves for SUNY Poly.

Up next for Bard is a home contest against Western New England University on September 18th at 7 p.m. You can follow it right here.