Garden City, N.Y. - On Wednesday night, the Adelphi University men's soccer team played to a hard-fought 3-3 draw against Mercy College in non-conference action at Motamed Field.

The Panthers (2-0-1) had a set of one-goal leads throughout the night, before Mercy (2-0-1) ultimately answered each time.

Adelphi appeared well on its way, when Victor Castel scored 2:30 into the match to stake the hosts to an early 1-0 advantage.

Castel, who has 12 points (five goals, two assists) in his first three games as a Panther, later broke a 1-1 tie in the 28th minute with a header that struck the bottom of the crossbar and bounced over the goal line.

As the halftime horn sounded, the two teams returned to their respective benches tied 2-2.

Adelphi quickly went searching for that tie-breaking goal to open the second half. After ringing a shot off the post minutes earlier, Rodrigo Descalzo Rocca was taken down inside the 18-yard box in the 61st minute.

He was then tasked with taking the penalty and planted his shot into the lower right corner of the net for the go-ahead tally.

Mercy, which outshot Adelphi 8-5 across the final 45 minutes, had one last response. Benjamin Van Buren found the touch off a free kick in the 79th minute, leveling the score at 3-all.

Benji Jones nearly had a game-winner to his credit in the final minutes, but a left-footed shot with 5:38 left was swatted away at the near post by Mercy keeper Eirik Elvestad.

The Panthers now hit the road for a 2 p.m. kickoff on Tuesday (Sept. 6) at Dominican University in Orangeburg, N.Y.