By Aaron Williams–

After falling 3-1 to the No. 9 ranked University of South Florida earlier in the week, the No. 10 ranked University of Louisville men’s soccer team tied the University of Rutgers on Saturday night in double overtime. The Cards only goal came in 31st minute of the first half when sophomore midfielder Andrew Farrell put the ball in the back of the net off a controlled rebound and assist from junior midfielder Paolo DelPiccolo.

“Coach stresses on restarts that we have to get the ball into the box and get something off of it. It wasn’t planned or anything, I just got in there, the ball came to me and I put it on goal,” said Farrell of the goal, his first of the 2011 season for the Cardinals.

The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers would respond in the 53rd minute of the second half with a rip from freshman striker Juan Pablo Correa off an assist from junior midfielder Dragan Naumoski and senior forward Ibrahim Kamara to equalize the match.

“I don’t know if they did a whole lot, or if it was more of us just not moving the ball quick enough, but I still thought, all in all, that we had most of the game,” said Louisville head coach Ken Lolla following the game. “They really had one chance at the end of the half, one chance in the second, and that’s it. So I thought defensively we did a good job and limited their opportunities, but it’s not enough. Right now, we’ve got to be perfect. We’ve got to be shutting teams out, just because we’re not scoring a lot of goals.”

The game was a tightly called one with multiple yellow cards given to both squads by the officials. A red card was given to Rutgers junior defender Joe Setchell in the 90th minute of regulation when he tackled Louisville senior forward Colin Rolfe right outside the box on a breakaway, preventing a scoring chance for the Cards.
“After I got up, I just thought about whether I could have stayed up on my feet or not, you always debate those decisions after the game, but what happened, happened,” said Rolfe of the play.

Down a man going into a sudden victory overtime situation, the Scarlet Knights packed their ten remaining players into the Rutgers defensive third of the pitch. The Knights continued the conservative defensive play throughout both the ten minute overtime periods, content to grind out the stalemate.

With the tie, Louisville’s record now stands at 8-5-2 on the year and 1-4-2 in the Big East. The Cardinals will play two more regular season games against Big East opponents DePaul and Villanova before the Big East tournament begins on Nov. 2.

“I think there’s a lot of energy right now, a lot of urgency, and we’re good enough to get points anywhere, it’s just a matter of shutting teams out and getting goals,” said Lolla.

That energy was expressed by Andrew Farrell following the game.

“We played well tonight. We just couldn’t get the result. I’m sure we’ll be in Birmingham Dec. 11. It’s just a process,” said Farrell.

The urgency was displayed by Colin Rolfe.

“We’ve got to win both of [the games], and get a good spot in the tournament and we’ll go from there.

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