Romeo’s Mateo Giulianelli has a knack for using his head when he plays against Eisenhower.

In three games against the Eagles, Giulianelli has scored a goal in each contest against Eisenhower, with each goal coming on a header, including one off a corner kick by Bulldog teammate Jacob Kirtley with 7:31 to play on Wednesday night, giving Romeo a 1-1 MAC crossover tie against the visiting Eagles.

“We’re dangerous on corner kicks,” Romeo coach Vincent Vasilevski said. “Mateo scored his fourth goal in six games this season and his third goal against Ike in three seasons, all on headers. That’s a great accomplishment.”

The goal came after several other Bulldog corner kicks that were dangerous but stayed outside the goal. Eagle coach Josh VanHouten knew his team was flirting with danger.

“The hard part with corners is the longer you allow them to be down there in your end, the more chances they’re going to get,” VanHouten said. “I knew (a goal) was going to happen eventually.”

Romeo had the better chances to score in the opening half, narrowly missing on several shots. The opening half ended scoreless.

“We have to capitalize on our chances,” Vasilevski said. “We carried the play most of the first half and I think they made some good adjustments in the second half, playing more possession and they carried the play at us in the second half. The result is a fair result.”

Eisenhower eventually took a 1-0 lead when Liam Smith sent a pass to his right where teammate Jakson Jaku ripped a shot from 15-yards out into the top left corner of the net with 29:23 to play.

“That was a play we drew up,” VanHouten said. “We diagrammed it perfectly at halftime. Jakson is very underrated, and I like to keep him under the radar. He’s a phenomenal player, who works hard and has a great attitude. He’s a player you want on your team.”

Vasilevski, who played for VanHouten and Eisenhower in high school, said he was pleased with the effort his team put forth against the Eagles.

“I played for Josh and we go back a long way,” Vasilevski said. “We have respect both ways. The exciting part is this is the first time we can really say this is a rivalry game. Usually Romeo is the underdog.

“I’m very happy with the way we played and the way we came back through adversity tonight,” Vasilevski added. “But we still didn’t win. We played a very good team and I think we played very well in the first half. The second half we dropped off a little bit.”

Eisenhower goalkeeper Evan DeJong made seven saves in the tie, which left the Eagles’ record at 4-2-1 overall.

“Evan’s one of the best goalies around,” VanHouten said. “We’ve only conceded free kick goals. He’s a rock back there and I always have complete confidence in him. He’s a leader for us.”

Bulldog goalies Anthony Antovski and Aleksandar Krstovski split time between the posts, combining to make four saves. The tie left Romeo’s record at 4-1-1 overall.

“Vinnie (Vasilevski) is a great coach and he has his guys playing very well,” VanHouten said. “They’re a different team. I’ve been telling everybody that you can’t sleep on Romeo. Our boys played hard, but it took some coaching at halftime to figure out how to crack the code in the first half.”