NEWARK, NJ—On a night when two teams with winning records each had reason to think they'd leave Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium victorious, NJIT and visiting Rider instead left with a 3-3 double overtime men's soccer draw Wednesday.
 
Rider (3-1-2), fourth in Division I in goals per game (2.80) coming into Newark, scored twice against the Highlanders in the first 28:20 before NJIT (4-2-2) rallied back to score the game's next three goals—two in the first half and one in the second. The third Highlanders goal, just 1:33 into the second half, put the home team on top for more than 32 minutes before the Broncs equalized in the 79th minute. The teams then played 31 more scoreless minutes for the 3-3 final.
 
Each of the combined six goals came from different players, with Warren Holmes, Florian Valot, and Justin Veltri finding the mark for the visitors and Joshua Mercer, Marko Drljic, and Tommy Osipitan ringing the bell for NJIT.
 
Each team had two assists and those went to different players, as well. Christian Flath and Zach Bond assisted for Rider, while Victor Kausch and Danny Cordeiro got onto the score sheet with assists for the Highlanders.
 
The total team shots were even at 13 apiece, while Rider put eight shots on frame and NJIT was on target seven times.

NJIT sophomore Christian Foust finished with four saves in 110 minutes, while the Highlanders were credited with one "team" save. The visiting Broncs used two goalkeepers, with sophomore David Pastuna starting and allowing two goals with one save in 45 minutes. Junior Ryan Baird came on at the half for the Broncs and finished with three saves, while allowing the one goal in 65 minutes of work.
 
Rider scored first off a corner kick in the 23rd minute. Flath, a sophomore from Germany who came in leading Rider in assists (3), kicked out of the left corner and put the ball into a crowd in front of the NJIT goal. Warren Holmes, running forward, came from the top of the box to one-time the ball into the net.
 
Rider scored again in the 29th minute on a penalty kick by Florian Valot. The penalty was awarded when the NJIT goalkeeper Foust came off his line and whistled for fouling Rider's Jose Aguinaga on a breakaway.
 
The Highlanders answered less than a minute after the second Rider goal when Joshua Mercer scored at 29:19, assisted by Victor Kausch, who dribbled to the end line and centered to Mercer, who ran onto the back pass and scored for the second time in as many games.
 
NJIT pulled level in the 42nd minute on Marko Drljic's third goal of the season and 10th of his 3-year career.
 
Danny Cordeiro assisted and now has three assists, tying him with Drljic for the 2014 NJIT lead. Cordeiro beat a Rider defender in the box 1-v-1 and got off a hard shot from a 45-degree angle to the goalkeeper's left. The Rider keeper, Pastuna, punched Cordeiro's shot back out to the slot, where Drljic pounced on the rebound and scored.
 
The goal raised Drljic's career scoring total to 36 points, pushing him past Franco Gamero (Class of 2014) into first place on NJIT's Division I career scoring list.
 
NJIT took what would be its only the lead on an unassisted goal for Tommy Osipitan in the 47th minute. Osipitan scored his second goal of the year when he beat his defender in the box and delievered a shot from just past and to the right of the penalty spot.
 
The 3-2 lead for the Highlanders held for more than a half-hour, but the home team needed a point blank save from Foust in the 70th minute to keep the lead. Valot, who had scored earlier at 28:20, worked his way through the box for a 10-yard try with a few ticks more than 20 minutes left on the second-half clock. Foust, who came off his line and dropped to his knees, deflected the shot away with his hands.
 
However, the explosive Broncs weren't done and they exploited a miscommunication in NJIT's back line to equalize in the 79th minute. Justin Vetri scored on Zach Bond's assist. Bond, a sophomore, caught the NJIT backs on their heels, sending a through ball into the box, where the junior Veltri finished from eight yards away.
 
Both teams had golden chances in the 87th minute. Osipitan took a shot for the Highlanders from in front on a feed from Nikola Gogic, but Rider's Baird turned it away with a reflex save. Moments later, Rider had a breakaway on a counter attack, but Veltri's running shot from 15 yards sailed just clear of the crossbar.
 
Neither team took a shot in the first overtime period, but Foust made two saves in the last 10 minutes, including a sprawling stop of a header by Holmes on a Rider corner kick in the 105th minute.
 
NJIT, which completed a five-match home stand with Wednesday's game, was 3-0-2 in the five home contests. Now, the Highlanders will head to Philadelphia for a match at Saint Joseph's on Saturday at 7 pm.