AMHERST, Mass. – Senior Borna Miklic (Kutina, Croatia) scored a career high two goals as the UMass Lowell men's soccer team (1-4-2, 0-0-0 AE) fought to a 3-3 draw against the Massachusetts Minutemen (5-0-3, 0-0-1 A10) on Tuesday afternoon at Rudd Field.
 
Joining Miklic in scoring was graduate student Javier Torres (Málaga, Spain) who added in a goal of his own, his second of the season. Jonathan Ferreira (Ashland, Mass.)  tied his career high with two assists, both on Miklic's goals, while senior Denis Petro (Michalovce, Slovakia) added in an assist as well. In net, senior Jacob Heihsel (Holliston, Mass.) made four saves in 90 minutes of action.
 
"We knew it would be a battle," said head coach Kyle Zenoni. "It has been great preparation for conference, and we showed today that we can compete with just about anyone in the country. The goals we scored in the run of play I thought were fantastic. We got some guys back from injury which was great for the team as we move forward."
 
The Minutemen started strong and put the River Hawks under pressure early in the game.  UMass Lowell recorded the first shot of the game two minutes in, but they found themselves behind 1-0 in the ninth minute after Andrew Ortiz put the Minutemen on the board. Following the goal, Massachusetts maintained most of the possession, but the River Hawks defense was up for the challenge, allowing only two shots over the next 12 minutes of play.
 
In the 21st minute, UMass Lowell got its first opportunity to get on the board, and they took advantage of it. Located on the far-right side of the field, Ferreira sent a crossing pass directly in front of the net, setting up Miklic for a diving header to knot the game up at one each.  Four minutes later, Torres made a beautiful diving play in front of the net, heading in a pass from Petro, putting the River Hawks up 2-1.
 
Massachusetts dominated possession for the remainder of the half and outshot the River Hawks, but UMass Lowell continued to shut down the Minutemen's aggressive offense to maintain the one goal lead heading into the break.
 
Coming out of the locker room, Massachusetts picked up where they left off, tallying two shots in the first five minutes of action. In the 55th minutes, a goal by Matt Fordham put the Minutemen back on the board, tying the game up, 2-2.
 
Over the next 30 minutes, both teams continued to play lockdown defense, holding each other to one shot each. With only six minutes remaining in the game, the River Hawks broke the tie in very similar fashion to their first goal of the afternoon. Ferreira fired a pass right in front of the net and Miklic got under it, heading the ball past the goalkeeper for his second goal of the game. However, the lead was short lived, as 30 seconds later the Minutemen retaliated with the equalizer. With only five minutes remaining, neither team found another scoring opportunity, and the game ended in a 3-3 draw.  
 
Next up, the River Hawks will return to the friendly confines of Cushing Field to take on the NJIT Highlanders on Saturday, September 24 at 7 p.m.