Saint Thomas Aquinas scored twice in the final five minutes as the Chestnut Hill College Men's Soccer team saw a 3-0 lead evaporate and were forced to settle for a 3-3 tie against the Spartans Wednesday night at Victory Field in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.

The Griffins record now stands at 0-2-1 while Saint Thomas Aquinas record is now 2-1-1.

Chestnut Hill jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Juan Ortiz (Cali, Columbia) took a free kick from about ten yards above the top of the box and put in into the net for his first goal of the season at the 8:56 mark.  Five minutes later, Ortiz had a hand in the Griffins' second goal taking a free kick from the sideline area that went to Jorge Mendez (Monteforte de Lemos, Spain) who found the right corner of the net to give Chestnut Hill a 2-0 lead. 

Griffins goalkeeper Stephen Connor (Riverton, N.J.) faced just one shot on goal in the period from the spartan offense who had five total shots in all.

Freshman Jason Barragan (Riverton, N.J.) put the Griffins up 3-0 in the 65^th minute as Ortiz again had a hand in the score, getting the assist on the play., his second of the game to goal along with his opening goal.

Things started to fall apart in the 78^th minute as the Griffins were called for a foul inside the box resulting in a penalty kick.  In the same sequence Connor drew an unsportsmanlike conduct red card and was ejected from the game.  STAC's Jorge Umana converted the penalty kick to close the gap to 3-1.

The Griffins, now playing a man down due to the ejection struggled to get the ball out of their defensive zone and the Spartans eventually capitalized, with a goal in the 84^th minute to cut the gap to 3-2 and another less than a minute later to tie the score at 3-3.   STAC had another opportunity in the 88^th minute but new CHC goalkeeper Connor McGrogan (Langhorne, Pa.) made the save.  The Griffins had two shots in the final 67 seconds with on being stopped by the STAC goalkeeper and the other going wide with under a minute remaining and had to settle for the 3-3 tie.  McGrogan finished the game with three saves.

The Chestnut Hill College Men's soccer team returns to action on Saturday, September 10, 2022 when they open conference play with a match at the University of Bridgeport.  Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m.