FARMVILLE, Va. — Sophomore Brando Bedolla scored twice in 39 seconds in the second half to help the Longwood men's soccer team salvage a 2-2 draw against Winthrop in Big South action on Friday.
Bedolla bent a the ball off of a short corner inside the far post off of an Aaron Buening assist with 65:34 on the clock to get the Lancers on the scoreboard. Bedolla then tied it on a high press, deflecting a pass back to Winthrop goalkeeper Jack Kilstrom over the goal line at the 66:13 mark.
The brace for Bedolla, his team-leading fourth and fifth goals of the season, helped Longwood (2-8-3, 0-4-1 Big South) earn its first point of the season in the league standings after Winthrop (1-9-3, 1-3-1) received two early goals from Bernardo Pacheco in the seventh and 13th minutes, respectively.
"I told the team stuff happens in football," Longwood head coach Paul Gilbert said. "Giving up two goals in the first, I don't know, 10 minutes in that one. "It's tough, but stuff happens in football and I challenged the guys at halftime. I told them that a game, a season doesn't really define who you are as a person, but it certainly reveals some character quality about you.
"And I just challenged them to have this character, this idea of never quitting and that they were going to get chances and hopefully we could get a couple back. And so we did get two back pretty quickly. And once we did, I thought we'd get the third. And obviously I'm not sure I've ever coached a team that's had 36 shots in a game, but we did and ultimately came away with a point to kind of keep our postseason chances alive."
Longwood fired a season-high 37 shots, the most in at least 13 seasons for the Lancers. Bedolla finished with a team-best 10 shots, while Bruening and Jesus Macaya had five apiece.
Pacheco made it 1-0, chipping a long ball over the head of goalie Youssou Ouendeno, who was drastically off his line on the play. Pacheco doubled the lead when he blasted a low shot from just outside the penalty area that took a defection in front and found its way into the net.
Despite the early deficit, which the Eagles carried into halftime, Longwood had a lion share of possession, seeing 68 percent of the ball in the opening 45 minutes.
"I think we've had some really tough breaks this year, as a whole, in a lot of games," Gilbert said. "I can look back to a single play that really defined the game and not a lot of them have, have went our way. And so I was just curious as to their response. … Some of that stuff this year, like, 'Oh, here we go again, type thing. And really their response was one of grit, of never giving up and of grinding and believing in themselves.
"And I thought it showed today, and I've said all year, we have a great, we have a great group of individual guys. Hopefully we can put it together here for, for the next, next three or four matches."
Longwood is back at it Tuesday when it travels to Navy for a 7 p.m., kickoff on ESPN+.
