PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Yale men's soccer team faced an early-season test in its first road game of the season. The Bulldogs traveled to Central New Jersey to face a strong Rutgers team. Yale nearly came away with the victory, but a late Scarlet Knights' goal resulted in a 2-2 draw at Yurcak Field.
 
Eric Lagos and Paolo Carroll were the Yale goal scorers.
 
After the teams traded penalty kick goals in the first half, the Bulldogs grabbed the lead midway through the second half when Lagos headed home a gorgeous Max Rogers free kick at 60:51.
 
Yale played well with the lead and had a couple of chances to build on it but was thwarted by Rutgers goalkeeper Ciaran Dalton.
 
MD Myers then scored his second goal of the game with just 3:13 remaining to tie score at 2-2.
 
"I'm proud of the group for responding well in the second half after we seemed to play very tense to start the game," said Kylie Stannard, The 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "I think if we come from behind to tie the game late, we are probably happy, but we leave disappointed not to hold onto the win as we had two or three excellent chances to go up by two goals late in the game. The lessons learned are that we are certainly good enough to win these types of games against top opponents on the road. It should give us confidence to get a result like this in our first away game, and it's nice to have one under our belt."
 
The Scarlet Knights struck first on a penalty kick, which was awarded when a Rutgers attacker was taken down in the box. Myers took the kick and banged it into the top left corner at 6:07. Yale goalkeeper Elian Haddock guessed right on the play, but the shot was just out of his reach.
 
Nearly 20 minutes later, the Bulldogs earned a penalty kick when a Rutgers defender was called for a hand ball in the box. Carroll stepped up and easily converted to tie the score at 1-1.
 
The even play continued in the early moments of the second half before Lagos tallied his first goal of the season.
 
The Scarlet Knights, who tied defending Ivy League champion Princeton on Friday, were playing their fourth game of the season.
 
This was only the third meeting all time between the teams. The first was a memorable 1-0 double overtime victory for Yale in the opening round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
 
The Bulldogs face another challenging road game when they travel to West Virginia on Friday night. The opening kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.