On a relatively chilly evening after a day full of rain, the UNC Wilmington men’s soccer team squared off against a good UNC Greensboro team that Coach Aidan Heaney called very talented in-state rivals. The match started off with UNCW keeping possession for a long stretch and getting the first few solid chances of the game. As the game progressed, though, play got increasingly physical.

“The match was definitely hyped for both sides beforehand,” said sophomore UNCW defender Jacob VanCompernolle. “Sometimes players just get a little too excited and that’s what some of the challenges were. Sometimes they’re just necessary. Mostly, it was just a really intense match.”

The physicality in this intense match definitely played a role, though. Things started off chippy and escalated as the game wore on.

UNCG netted the first goal, with a header off a cross from the left side. The goal was scored by Oddur Gudmundsson. Play seemed to get a little more intense after that first goal. Players weren’t afraid to nudge each other beforehand, but shoulders were thrown and arms fully extended afterward. The first of many yellow cards was given to freshman UNCW midfielder Jose Garcia around the 29th minute.

Not long afterward, UNCW was able to find a way to claw back to even standing. VanCompernolle scored the first goal.

“Really, it wasn’t difficult,” VanCompernolle said. “Etienne (Boulanger) did all the hard work. He got a great pass in, and all I had to do was put it in the net.”

After halftime the intensity, and in turn the physicality, picked up yet again. UNCW went up quickly.

Michael Mecham played a long-ball quite well to sophomore Jamie Dell, who then dribbled past his defender and the goalie, and, just before going out of bounds, got the shot off at the edge of the box. The ball traveled perfectly down the line into an open net, looking like something out of a Premier League highlight film. The goal went in the box score as unassisted, but when asked about it, Dell said, “Meeks (Mecham) made me look good. He played me perfectly, and after that it was all pretty simple.” Because beating a defender, dribbling past the goalie, and perfectly placing a shot down the line is simple.

The new development added to the intensity yet again. UNCG tied it up a little over 4 minutes later with a flick header assist from Dustin Gamradt to Maximilian Schulz who netted the ball from ten yards out.

Within a minute after that goal, a fight broke out between two players on the ground in the UNCG penalty box. Play was away from the tussle, and the refs missed it initially, but later doled out yellows to both of the involved players, Etienne Boulanger for UNCW and Mahdi Ali for UNCG.

Four more yellows would come before regulation ended, one of them to Garcia, his second, which meant UNCW was man down for the remainder of the match after the 67th minute.

The score remained tied through regulation, and two golden goal periods ensued. The UNCG attack was relentless, but the UNCW defense held strong throughout regulation and both overtime periods to finish with a draw in the home opener.

“You have to credit the guys for coming back from a goal down to a goal up and then keeping the tie through 50 minutes of playing man down,” said Coach Heaney. “Yes, usually you want to open with a win, but this is a victory in my mind.”