By Madison Rubino
La Verne Athletics Communication 

LA VERNE, Calif. — The La Verne men's soccer team and Chapman have had physical battles over the past few years and tonight was no different.

In a game that featured eight yellow cards, one red card and crunching tackles all over the field, neither the Leopards nor the Panthers could find a decisive edge in a 3-3 tie on Wednesday night at Ortmayer Stadium.

Both sides remained aggressive and chippy over the whole course of the game. The momentum shifted evenly throughout, with two lead changes and three ties.

La Verne seemed to grab the edge in the 67th minute when Christopher Wong found a perfect pocket of space in the penalty box and headed in a Auden Foxe cross without even jumping to give the Leopards a 3-2 lead.

However, just four minutes later, La Verne's Ferdinand Estrada made a clumsy tackle in front of his goal to cede a penalty kick to the Panthers and Sam Rudich converted it to tie the game back up at 3-3.

Neither team controlled the first overtime but Chapman got an opening in the second. With over seven minutes left, Briley Venti--who received a yellow card earlier in the game--went in for a hard tackle near the edge of the penalty area that the referee deemed harsh enough for a second yellow and was ejected from the game. The Panthers went on an all-out offensive for the rest of the game but Leopards made just enough defensive plays to withstand the pressure.

The action began when La Verne's Saul Uribe opened up the scoring with a cross from Estrada and a goal in the 12th minute. But before the crowd had a chance to sit back down, Chapman returned the favor in less than a minute and with no hesitation with a header by Jake Sarmiento off a long throw-in from the right side.

Chapman held the lead in the first half but La Verne came out fighting in the second when Briley Venti scored in the 46th minute for a 2-2 tie. 

"It was a great battle between two teams and I am letting my team know that this is a positive result." La Verne head coach Trevor Persson said. "We knew coming in they would be a very physical and organized team and we prepared for that but at the end of the day this is good news for us."

The action will continue this Saturday against Caltech at 7 p.m.