The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's soccer team paid tribute to its seniors in their final game and settled for a 2-2 tie in a hard-fought battle against Mercy College. The Spartans conclude the season with a 5-5-5 overall record, 2-3-4 in East Coast Conference Play. Mercy moved to 10-4-3, 4-4-1, and the tie assured them a slot in the upcoming ECC Tournament.

Entering the day, the Spartans were 3-0-2 in their previous five games, but were in need of a victory to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Both teams exchanged chances in an entertaining, hard-fought battle that remained scoreless through 65 minutes, but the stage was set for a wild finish.

Daniel Davren - one of seven seniors being honored on Senior Day - took a great pass from Laurie Child and floated a header over Mercy keeper Nick Papas at 65:26 to finally break the seal on a day-long scoring drought. Including the preceding women's game, which was played to a scoreless tie, the goal was the first scored in over 175 minutes on the afternoon.

STAC's celebration would be short-lived, however, as Mercy's William Koki deftly dribbled past Spartan defenders along the end line and lifted one past netminder Andrew Tartara, also in his final game as a senior, to tie the score at 69:11.

With overtime looking likely, Ernest Afful struck a perfect shot from just outside the top right corner of the penalty area which skidded barely inside the far post at 80:45 to put the Mavericks up 2-1. The dust had barely settled when Joe Connolloy, another of the Senior Brigade, found Davren just 33 ticks later to even the match at 2-2.

Despite the overtime session remaining scoreless, the drama continued into the final seconds, with both Connolloy and Koki striking posts at either end within seconds of each other on the final minute of play. STAC held a 30-25 edge in shots, with Papas recording 11 saves and Tartara with four - two of which were of the spectacular variety.

In addition to Davren, Tartara and Connolly, the athletic department also honored seniors Brendan Flynn, Jorge Mera, Sean Reilly, and James Earl.