High Point and East Carolina battled it out on Saturday night at Albion Millis Stadium as the two teams remained tied, 3-3, at the end of double overtime.
The first goal of the game came just 10 minutes into the contest when ECU's Matt Kowaleski caught the deflection off of Panther goalkeeper Adam Ross to put the Pirates up 1-0.
High Point (0-4-3) soon answered the Pirates' (0-6-1) goal in the form of Dan Haywood who bounced a direct free kick off of an ECU defender to knot the game at 1-1. Haywood now has four goals on the season to lead the team.
The Panthers pulled ahead, 2-1, in the 20th minute when Chris Archer passed the ball to Haywood who then broke away from the defender to set up Cole Atkins for the goal.
In the 26th minute Calvin Simon found the back of the net off of an assist from David Levine who passed the ball over the line of HPU defenders to pull the Pirates even and set the score at 2-2.
HPU's Josh Windley quickly retaliated with a goal in the 27th minute when he connected with a corner kick from Atkins to send the Panthers into the half with a 3-2 lead.
"I thought that Archer played a phenomenal game tonight," High Point head coach Peter Broadley said. "Windley had a great game as well. Atkins goal was quite impressive and he played great in the midfield tonight. [Victor] Harrison had an excellent defensive game as did [Patrick] Althoff. Tonight was an overall great team effort."
The second half only saw one goal when in the 51st minute ECU's Levine once again found Simon who sent the ball into the back of the net and set the score at 3-3.
Despite being down a player when Haywood got ejected in the 56th minute, the Panthers were able to hold off the surging Pirate offense.
"I have to think that these past games have been character building," said Broadley. "Hopefully we will be able to draw from these experiences and turn them into wins. I was really glad to see that we were able to hold it together defensively even when we were down a player."
Playing goal for the Panthers was Ross who had five saves on the night while ECU's Chris Hicks stopped four.
Tonight's contest marked the third consecutive tie game for the Panthers.
The Panthers will again play at home on Wednesday, Sept. 28 when Big South opponent Winthrop comes to town. Wednesday night's contest will be a double-header with the HPU women's soccer team. The women are set to kick-off at 5 p.m. with men following at 7 p.m. Admission to all home soccer games is free.
