ERIE, Pa. – Strange things happen in rivalry games. Despite Mercyhurst sprinting out to a 2-0 lead on its home turf in Saturday's match with Gannon University, the No. 15-ranked Knights fought back to earn a point after a 2-2 draw through two overtimes. Gannon's record moves to 10-1-1 overall (4-0-1 PSAC) and while the school's six-match win streak ends, its unbeaten streak increases to seven matches as they remain in first place in the PSAC West. Mercyhurst (6-3-2 overall, 1-1-2 PSAC) is fourth in the standings.
 
Tinashe Katsande (Norwich, England/Dereham Sixth Form College), still the PSAC's leading scorer entering the game despite missing two games after picking up a knock on Oct. 6 at Slippery Rock, came off the bench to score both of Gannon's goals on the day and now has scored 10 this season.
 
Both teams came out in the first half with an attacking mentality, but the match remained scoreless until the 42^nd minute. Mercyhurst's Sean Kerrigan snuck behind the Gannon defense on the left wing, dribbled into the box, and sent a powerful cross directly to the center of the box and the feet of Tom Barry, who one-timed it into the net for the 1-0 lead.
 
Things got stranger at the beginning of the second half, as Gannon was attempting to clear the ball from deep in its own half. Maximiliano Rocco (Florence, S.C.) sent the ball into the midfield, but a fortuitous bounce found Mercyhurst's Nevado Elliot, who whistled a long-range shot past Rocco into the low left corner of the goal for the Lakers' second goal of the game.
 
The Knights finally came to life in the 69^th minute and all it took was three touches of the ball. Playing it down the right side of the field, Joe Knox (Gold Coast, Australia/The Southport School) laid off a ball for Bek Nurlanbek (Almaty, Kazakhstan/Loughborough College), who spotted Katsande all alone in the box. The resulting cross found its way toward Katsande, who volleyed the ball directly past Lakers' keeper Jonathan Gomes to bring Gannon within a goal.
 
The 83^rd minute also saw a second moment of brilliance from the Knights, when Sergio Del Castillo (Madrid, Spain) threaded a perfectly weighted ball from the midfield to Katsande, who took a beautiful first touch to completely fool the keeper and ripped a shot into the open goal to equalize the game and force overtime.
 
Mercyhurst would go down to 10 men midway through the first overtime after a tackle by Salvador Rang on Furkan Yildirim (Berlin, Germany/Thomas Mann Gymnasium) earned him a second yellow card and a spot on the sidelines for the rest of the game. Gannon—now able to really pressure Mercyhurst's defense—came close to finding the golden goal, including a shot from Herman Aanberg (Hamar, Norway/Wang Toppidrett Oslo) as time was expiring in the second overtime, but the match came to a close tied 2-2. Katsande led all Knights with five shots (three on target) in his 73 minutes off the bench, while Knox and Del Castillo each finished with three shots.

Next up for the Golden Knights is a non-conference road match with Daemen College (N.Y.) on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 12:00 p.m.