Press release written by Nathan Foltz.
NEWARK, Del. - - The Wilmington University men's soccer team had to settle for a draw on Wednesday afternoon, as the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opening match against Holy Family University ended with the teams tied 2-2.
With the draw, the Wildcats remain unbeaten through five games, bringing their record to 3-0-2. The Tigers, meanwhile, move to 1-2-1 with their first tie of the season. This was the first conference match in 2025 for either squad, so both will go into the weekend with an 0-0-1 record in CACC play.
It was a chilly, misty day at the WU Athletics Complex, and the wet turf playing fast seemed to throw off both teams through a scoreless first half.
The Wildcats were the first to adjust coming out of the half, as Shuntaro Morimoto tallied his first goal of the season in the 48th minute. After Isaak Simic placed a ball at the top of the box, Morimoto collected and wrapped to the right around a defender before threading the ball between the defender and goalkeeper into the left corner of the net.
Seven minutes later in the 55th minute, Alex Tarway took a ball across the top of the box before hitting off a left-footed shot. His ball hit the Holy Family keeper in the chest but it couldn't be contained as he fell to the ground. Theo Faillon swooped in to capitalize on the opportunity for an easy goal just a couple yards in front of the net. It was Faillon's second goal of the season in his third game, as he didn't play in the Wildcats' previous two matchups due to injury. Tarway picked up his second assist of the season on the score.
The Tigers didn't give up though, playing good defense the rest of the match before breaking through in the 71st minute with a Hugo Gutierrez goal on a cross from the left. Only 26 seconds later, Holy Family stole the ball back and Gutierrez quickly struck again to bring the score even at two.
Neither team was able to get off a shot for the rest of the match, settling the totals at 16 (seven on goal) for Wilmington and nine (three on goal) for Holy Family. The Tigers led in corners, 8-3.
Next up for the Wildcats is a matchup with Dominican University of New York in Orangeburg on Saturday at 2:30 p.m., as they look to get their first conference win of the season.