FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The only thing that would have made it sweeter was a win.

But in the realm of ties, it doesn't get much better than the Bellarmine University men's soccer team's 2-2 draw with Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday afternoon at the Hefner Soccer Complex.

Bellarmine (0-1-2) entered the second half with a two-goal deficit against the Mastodons (0-2-1). The Knights played a man down for nearly 32 minutes of the second stanza. With emotions running high, another player on the bench was sent off. The shorthanded squad trailed by a goal with less than three minutes left.

And despite the mountain of adversity, Bellarmine managed to fight back and finish even with PFW.

The equalizer came in the 88th minute and is one freshman defender Jeffrey Cox will certainly never forget. The sequence began with senior midfielder Rahim Shalash making a long chip into the box. From there, the ball ping-ponged off the heads of junior midfielder Brendan Schoemehl, senior defender Brock Pope and freshman forward Colin Elder.

Elder's touch found Cox inside the 6, and, off a hop, he rifled a shot inside the far post to knot it up at 2 despite Bellarmine having only 10 players on the field. It was the first goal of Cox's career.

Facing a 2-0 hole, Bellarmine was assertive from the get-go after halftime. The Knights cut their deficit in half a little over three minutes into the second half, a quick strike that proved even more critical in hindsight after they'd start playing a man down a short time later.

Bellarmine's two goals both reflected teamwork. On the first, in the 49th minute, Pope launched a throw-in from the right sideline that cleared the heads of a Knight and Mastodon in the box and took a hop to Elder, who headed the ball forward toward the 6. Schoemehl flew in, leapt over a defender and knocked the ball over the oncoming goalkeeper and into the net to cut PFW's lead in half.

Incredibly, Bellarmine finished with a 9-8 advantage in shots, including 4-3 on frame. The Mastodons outshot the Knights 5-1 in the first half, but BU had an 8-3 edge after the break despite playing shorthanded for much of the second half.

Bellarmine will host Northern Kentucky at 7 p.m. (ET) Monday. 

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