Men’s Soccer Earns 1-1 Draw with No. 14 William Penn in Conference Opener

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Playing its first conference match of the season, the Baker men's soccer team earned a draw against No. 14 William Penn after the two Heart of America Conference clubs battled to a 1-1 result on Saturday night in Baldwin City.

The Wildcats were awarded a penalty within the first five minutes of play that Gyorgy Kamaras converted on to give BU an early lead before the Statesmen notched the equalizer in the 77th minute. The early PK also resulted in WPU playing with a man down for nearly all 90 minutes.

Despite both the score and man advantage, the Baker defense faced a ferocious WPU attack that doubled the Wildcats in shots, 12-6 and earned six corner kicks in the match. The Wildcats had a limited amount of scoring chances, but were able to get four shots off in the second half.

It was Kamaras getting behind the William Penn backline to draw the penalty just four minutes into the match and the Hungarian forward connected on the ensuing PK to put Baker in the driver's seat, up 1-0 and playing with the extra man.

Kamaras, a junior forward, now has seven goals on the season, including a perfect 3-for-3 on PK's.

The Statesmen controlled the ball in their attacking half for most of the match and finally had their efforts rewarded in the 77th, following a free kick near the top of the box. BU's clearance was sent back in by WPU and a bouncing ball eventually found the feet of its starting midfielder Luigi Mongnan who had his first attempt clang off the crossbar, but Mongan was able to tap in the rebound to draw the match level.

Baker looked for a late game-winner in the 88th minute with Mo Salas sending in a free kick that found a leaping Milan Nikolic, but the Serbian defender's header went right to the hands of the WPU keeper who was able to deflect the would-be goal.

Michael Stӧger played the full 90 minutes in goal for BU, collecting three saves in a busy night for the freshman keeper.

The Wildcats continue a tough start to their conference slate with the latter end of their back-to-back top-25 matchups coming against No. 22 Central Methodist on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Fayette, Mo.

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