Rapid City, S. Dakota. –The Montana State University Billings Men's Soccer team played South Dakota School of Mines to a tie Thursday night, 1-1.

The tie is the first ever in SDSMT history, the program is currently in its second year.

The Hardrockers open the scoring when Mike McGraw found the back of the net during the 23 minute of the first period beating Jacket goalie Eoin Hurley, with an assist from Andreas Skau. SD Mines went into the half with a 1-0 lead.

The Jackets charged back in the second half as Thorge Jess knotted the game up 1-1 in the 66th minute with a critical goal which was assisted by Kyle Emerick.

"After our terrible loss against SFU last weekend we expected a response from our team," Head Coach Alex Balog said. "That only came in the last 65 minutes of the game. We started the first half sloppy and found ourselves in a hole. In the second half and two overtime periods we saw a completely different MSUB: hungry, sharp, playing with heart and desire. I'm happy with the reaction, but not with our first half, and especially not with our finishing. Tomorrow we play University of Mary which will be battle we'll need to be ready for from the very start of the game."

The Yellowjackets outshot the Hardrockers 12-8, but the Hardrockers were more efficient with six of their eight being on goal attempts compared to the Jackets four of twelve on goal tries. The Jackets also lead in corner kick opportunities eight to five. An eye popping total of 39 fouls were called, 23 on MSUB and 16 on SDSMT.

Hurley had five saves and SDSMT goalie Timothy Tribbett had three on the day.

Jackets are now 3-9-4 overall, 3-6-3 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. The Hard Rockers are 0-14-1, 0-11-1 in GNAC play.

MSUB next squares off against the University of Mary on Saturday, Nov. 2nd 1:00 P.M. Central Time Zone. Stats and live video can be found at http://goumary.com/.


Yellowjackets vs. Hardrockers
Date: Oct. 31 Attendance: 120
Weather: 50

Goals by period 1 2 OT O2 Tot
-------------------------------------
Yellowjackets....... 0 1 0 0 - 1
Hardrockers......... 1 0 0 0 - 1

SCORING SUMMARY:
1. 25:13 SDSMT McGraw,Michael (Skau,Andreas)
2. 66:12 MSUB Jess, Thorge (Aringer, Michael;Emerick, Kyle)

Shots: Yellowjackets 12, Hardrockers 8
Saves: Yellowjackets 5 (Hurley, Eoin 5), Hardrockers 3
(Tribbett,Timothy 3)