In its final tune-up before the regular season begins Sept. 6, the N.C. State men’s soccer team tied with UNC-Wilmington on Saturday night in Raleigh. The Wolfpack went into halftime leading 1-0, but the Seahawks found an equalizer with six minutes left in the game. 

“I think some guys played really well. We had some great moments,” head coach Kelly Findley said. “But we’re a little bit too up and down, and we need to get some consistency with our performance.” 

The Wolfpack dominated the first half, having the majority of possession, which forced the Seahawks deep into its own half to defend. UNC-W was happy to play the cat-and-mouse game, absorbing pressure and attempting to Pack on the counterattack. 

The beginning of the first half didn’t see either team produce many goal-scoring opportunities, but eventually State’s offense began to carve out chances.

The Pack’s first good chance came in the 24th minute when senior midfielder Nazmi Albadawi dribbled into the heart of the Seahawks defense. As the Seahawks defense collapsed on him, Albadawi passed to junior forward Nick Surkamp who was running across the face of the goal. 

With a defender at his back, Surkamp turned and shot quickly but fired his effort well high of the Seahawks goal. 

Seven minutes later, the Wolfpack had another opportunity to open the scoring, this time through senior midfielder Alex Martinez on the right wing. Martinez passed to freshman forward Davi Ramos, whose shot was blocked by a Seahawk defender. 

The game became livelier at the close of th e first half as both teams looked to open the scoring before halftime. The end-to-end action played to the Wolfpack’s advantage in the 37th minute.  

After earning a corner kick, Martinez played his corner short to senior defender Gbenga Makinde, who whipped in a left-footed cross to the back post. Junior defender Clement Simonin, after making a surging run into the box, headed Makinde’s cross home with authority to give the Pack a 1-0 lead.

“We’ve been working a lot on short corners and on deliveries because that was what we didn’t do that well the first week,” Simonin said. “We missed too many chances because we didn’t cross or the delivery was poor, but this time the delivery was perfect.”

Most of UNC-W’s goal scoring chances came from the left flank, but senior Wolfpack goalkeeper Fabian Otte was never seriously troubled throughout the first half. State went into the break with a 1-0 lead. 

Freshman forward Travis Wannemuehler started both halves for the Wolfpack. Wannemuehler, the No. 33 recruit in the country, also started for State in its exhibition game last week against High Point and has made a good impression on the coaching staff. 

“I thought [Wannemuehler] had a great game,” Findley said. “I think we had a couple of young guys step up today that did really well who are going to grow a lot … Some guys play their way into the lineup and some guys play their way out of the lineup.”

Wannemuehler, the Evansville, Ind. native gave the Pack a dangerous attacking option down both flanks, a point he proved just three minutes into the second half. The freshman beat his defender on the right wing and sprinted into the box, where senior midfielder Danny DiPrima was waiting 10 yards from goal. 

DiPrima took Wannemuehler’s pass in the middle of the box and blasted a waist-high volley towards the Seahawk goal. But DiPrima’s effort sailed high into the student seating behind the goal. 

State’s offense continued to create scoring opportunities in the second half, including a glorious chance for Simonin to grab a second goal and a simple close range effort for freshman midfielder Yanni Hachem. But both shots fell harmlessly wide of the goal, to the relief of the UNC-W defense. 

The Seahawks, generating little offensive impetus throughout the match, eventually punished the Pack for its wastefulness in the 83rd minute. 

After the Wolfpack gave away a free kick in its own left corner, Seahawks midfielder Mateo Cardona hooked a low shot past freshman goalkeeper Jonathan Davis. 

Both teams had last minute opportunities to grab winning goals after Cardona’s equalizer, but the game finished in a 1-1 tie. 

“Nobody wants to get scored on, but I think we had a positive reaction to them scoring,” Wannemuehler said. “We took the ball out of the net and went right back at them for six minutes, but there just wasn’t enough time to score another goal. Part of preseason is learning from mistakes.”

“Overall I thought they were a pretty direct team and hard to play against,” Findley said. “But we had plenty of chances to finish the game off and we didn’t and that’s probably the biggest frustration.”