Box Score DENVER The University of Denver men’s soccer team played Alabama A&M to a 1-1 draw at Pioneer Field on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a hard-fought game against a talented opponent,” head coach Bobby Muuss said. “We are disappointed in the result, but it was a draw and we can use this to motivate our team going into next week against two good conference opponents.”
The Pioneers (7-5-1) scored just 2:08 into the second half. After freshman forward Jarod Stigall (Plano, Texas) was taken down inside the box, senior midfielder Joey Mathot (Port Moody, B.C.) scored on a penalty kick to the upper right corner of the goal.
Alabama A&M (7-5-2) tied the game in the 65th minute. Stone went to the top of the box to intercept a pass but dropped the ball, and Abraham Kassaye stole the ball and kicked it into an open net.
Denver out-shot Alabama A&M 12-10 in the second half with a 6-2 advantage on goal, but the game remained knotted at 1-1, heading into overtime.
Each team had six shots in the first half but neither found the net, and the teams headed into halftime with a scoreless tie.
With just over a minute remaining in the first overtime, Jacob Letsolo fired a shot from just outside of the box on the left side, but freshman goalkeeper Gavin Dawson (Carrboro, N.C.) jumped to punch the ball out of bounds.
The Pioneers had one last shot as the clock ran out, when senior Kyle Christensen (Layton, Utah) fired a shot over the goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Teale Stone (Tulsa, Okla.) replaced sophomore goalkeeper Joe Willis (St. Louis, Mo.) in the 13th minute of the game.
25-Year Reunion: Denver honored its 1983 team at halftime of the game. Brian Biesterfield, Mustafa Zidane, Mike Mills, Dan Weisner, Brad Barkey, Stewart Stockdale, Scott Ogden, Pete Campbell, C.R. Kalin and Chris Sutliffe all returned to Pioneer Field for the reunion.
Under Head Coach John Byrden, the 1983 Denver men’s soccer team compiled a 19-4-1 record. The 19 games the Pioneers won in 1983 represent the second highest win total in the history of Denver men’s soccer. Over the course of the 1983 season, Denver outscored its opponents by an impressive margin of 61 goals. In the postseason, the Pioneers defeated Austin and Bethany Nazarene to advance out of the NAIA regionals to the NAIA Nationals. At the national tournament, Denver fell to South Carolina-Spartanburg before defeating Gordon.
Senior forward Kefalas Soteris scored 47 goals and 105 points for the Pioneers during the 1983 season, both of which rank as the best in Denver men’s soccer history. In fact, his 105 points place him tied for third on the all-time single season NAIA list, and his 47 goals are the fourth in a single season by an NAIA athlete. Kefalas’s scored 104 career goals for DU, which ties him for ninth in NAIA history, and his 230 career points for the Pioneers are tenth on the all-time NAIA list.
Senior Peter Campbell played in goal for the Pioneers during the 1983 season. With a career record of 58-15-5, Campbell still stands as the Pioneers’ all-time wins leader.
The Pioneers remain at home for pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contests. Denver hosts San Jose State at Pioneer Field on Friday and Sacramento State on Sunday.
