The Seattle Sounders played to a 1-1 against the Seattle University Redhawks Sunday evening in a benefit match for the Kent Youth Soccer Association.

Former Redhawk, Santa Maria Rivera figured into the goals for both sides with a 82nd minute foul that led to Eric Forner converting a spot kick and bringing the Sounders level just three minutes later, slamming home a shot from the top left corner of the six yard box.

The Redhawks came out eager to take the match to the professional side who had played the night before, but with he exception of an early effort from Ian Walsh, the Seattle University squad failed to produce much quality in their attack.

Colin Rigby forced a stellar save from Redhawks keeper Emerson Oliveira, highlighting a Sounders attack the moved fluidly towards the goal, but was unlucky to not find an early goal.

Sebastien Le Toux, Adam West, Roger Levesque and Noah Merl put on an impromptu juggling display for the fans at half time and found themselves rightly upstaged by a couple of spectacular goals in the mini match for the TopSoccer Program, which provides opportunities for children with physical and intellectual disabilities to play soccer.

Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer looked to infuse energy into the attack by replacing Andre Schmidwith trialist Rory Agu. The Jackson High School product has trained with the youth ranks of the Nigerian National Team, but in the early going the Redhawks defense provided him with very little space to demonstrate his skill.

The Seattle University offense created a pair of free kicks just outside of the 18 yard box, but Dustin Allbery was unable to convert.

In the 65th minute Schmetzer showed his disapproval with the lack of quality chances being produced by his side by inserting the teams leading scorer from 2005, Roger Levesque, into the midfield in place of Aaron Heinzen and further worked to will the team forward by replacing defender Gabe Sturm with forward Fusi Bellal.

The Sounders broke under rare pressure from the SU attack in the 82nd minute when Rivera, who slotted in at left back after Sturm’s substitution, hauled down hauled down the SU attacker in the 18 yard box and allowed Redhawks defender Forner to send Sounders keeper Ben Dragavon the wrong way and put the SU ahead.

Three minutes later, Rivera made up for his mistake and put a low hard shot in the back of the net after a bit of confusion in the Redhawks defense led to a scramble in their 18 yard box.

Redhawks midfielder ground at the Sounders defense all night and was nearly rewarded for his physical presence when he pulled away in the 86th minute and forced Dragavon to come up with a spectacular leaping save to deny a shot that was labeled for the upper 90 from 20 yards out.

The final moments raced by at a fever pitch as both sides sensed the match was in their grasp and desperately tried to create the winner.

It was not to be for either side. The match finished level, more of a moral victory for the Redhawks as they finish up their spring schedule and begin to look forward to the fall’s NCAA campaign.

The Sounder will play back to back regular season matches next weekend with a nationally televised match in Portland against the Timbers on Friday May 11 followed by a match against the defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps at 7pm Saturday night at Qwest Field. The match against Portland will air at 8pm Friday on Fox Soccer Channel.