PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Niagara men’s soccer team (1-3-1) battled back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 tie with Duquesne (1-3-3) Friday night.

"Tonight we took a step in the right direction as we kept possession of the ball and managed to form some good combination play throughout the game," head coach Dermot McGrane said. "The boys showed a lot of character to come from 2-0 down to tie the game. Overall, I was pleased with our performance."

Niagara fell behind early, giving up a goal at the 15-minute mark as Duquesne’s Alex Trujillo scored off a pass from John Strosser. Trujillo found himself all alone near the top of the box and flicked a cheeky shot past NU goalkeeper John Fiutowski (Ottawa, Ont.).

Niagara had a flurry of chances in the first half, including four shots in less than a minute, but the Duquense defense was up to the challenge and blocked several chances.

The Dukes doubled their lead shortly after half time when Stefan Lundberg recorded his second goal of the season. Lundberg got in behind the NU defense and outran a Purple Eagle defender to poke the ball past Fiutowski.

Niagara got on the scoreboard early in the second half as junior Matthew Durand (Melbourne, Australia) scored just 10 minutes after intermission off an assist from sophomore Latim Bitek (Rochester, N.Y.). Bitek pulled a nifty move to beat his defender down the left flank and slotted the ball through for Durand to run onto. Durand collected the ball near the top left corner of the penalty box and beat the Dukes’ goalkeeper, Chris Torres, to the lower right corner. The goal marked Durand’s second in as many games.

Niagara tied the game in the 64th minute as junior Joe Skinner (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) tallied his first goal of the season on a 25-yard strike. Skinner collected a deflection off freshman Levi Tesch’s (Wolcott, N.Y.) shot, and blasted a half volley into the top right corner to tie the game.

NU nearly took the lead with a little more than 10 minutes to go in regulation when Durand received a ball with his back to the Dukes’ goal, turned and fired a shot from 25 yards that just cleared the cross bar.

Near the end of the second half, the Purple Eagle defense withstood the Dukes’ offensive surge, which included eight DU corner kicks in the final 18 minutes. Fiutowski had another busy night in goal, stopping 11 shots and bringing his season save total to 51, which leads the MAAC.

The teams battled through two overtimes, but neither could muster much offense as each finished with a single shot in the 20 minutes of extra time.

The Purple Eagles travel to Lewisburg on Sunday for a 1 p.m. match with Bucknell.