ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - The Bethel University men's soccer team and St. Olaf College faced off in their first MIAC conference match of the year Wednesday afternoon at the Ona Orth Athletic Complex and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. St. Olaf started the game off with a bang, scoring in the third minute on a strike from Kyle Leemon. However, it did not take long for the Royals to strike back and tie the game at 1-1. In the 12^th minute Brendan Reich pounded the ball in the back of net off a nice assist from Joshua de la Rosa.

"I thought Brendan Reich had a great game offensively for us and Josh Carlson and Spencer Pearson highlighted our defensive efforts," said Bethel head coach Jeremy Iwaszkowiec.

The Royals were the first to score in the second half when Josh de la Rosa continued his hot streak scoring his 5^th goal in as many games in the 60^th minute off a nice assist from Brendan Reich.

"De la Rosa and Reich combined twice on the day which was very fun to see, they are two dynamic players gaining confidence with every game," coach Iwaszkowiec said.

However, the Oles tied it up in the 80^th minute off a goal from Aaron Miller. The game would go into overtime where no team would score resulting in a tie. The Royals held a slight shot advantage after regulation at 15-13 but Bethel failed to get a shot in the overtime periods while St. Olaf had five.

"It was an extremely exciting match that could have gone either way," said Iwaszkowiec. "There was end to end action with a number of goal scoring opportunities for both teams. I was very proud of our effort and the way we battled for 110 minutes.  Offensively, we created a number of chances in the run of play. Their goalkeeper made two fantastic saves to keep them in the game."

The Royals will return to action Saturday when they play at the University of St. Thomas at 3:30 p.m. before coming home Sunday to play Finlandia University at 2 p.m.