ABILENE, Texas – McMurry University's and Howard Payne University's men's soccer teams could not resolve anything in their match, playing to a 3-3 draw after two overtimes. With the tie, the War Hawks are now 3-4-2 overall and 2-1-2 in the American Southwest Conference, while the Yellow Jackets are 0-5-1 and 0-2-1 in ASC contests.
 
But McM had plenty of chances to move the game results from a "T" to the "W" column. The War Hawks out-shot the Yellow Jackets by a 23-9 margin, 10 in the first half alone and another five in the second overtime.
 
But early on, it looked like McM might run away with the match, tallying a pair of goals within two minutes of each other. The first came at the 25:53 mark of the match when Matt Hernandez sent the ball to Martin Ornelas, who drove it past HPU net-minder Nicholas Panameno to make it 1-0.
 
At the 27:40 juncture, Rafael Lara would score his team-leading fourth goal of the year.  The opportunity came after teammate Mike Cruz took two shots from close range, both of which were blocked. The second, however, found Lara's feet and the sophomore sent the ball to the back of the net to up then War Hawks lead to 2-0.
 
But HPU was not about to go away just yet. Tracer Moore had a pair of goals before halftime to even things up. Moore notched a penalty kick in the 32nd minute and then scored from 15 yards in front in the 44th minute to make it 2-2 going to the halftime locker room.
 
Ahmad Holt Jr. again gave the War Hawks the upper hand in the 58th minute.  Jesus Sanchez passed the ball to Holt Jr. in the face of the goal, then slid then ball to the far post with the goalkeeper out of position, 3-2.
 
For the next 27 minutes, McM was able to hold the upper hand. But at 84:13 of the contest, HPU's Julio Lazo tied it at 3-3.
 
While neither team was able to add to its score the balance of the game, McMurry had two good chances in the second OT.  Both opportunities were off the foot of Lara, who had two of his four shot attempts in that final segment.
 
Panameno had four saves in the match, while McM goalie Alex Chavez made two stops.
 
McMurry will next host UT-Dallas on Saturday (4:30 p.m.) at Wilford Moore Stadium.