WILMINGTON, Ohio – A late second half Wilmington College goal set the stage for yet another overtime loss for the Marietta College men's soccer team as the Quakers scored 1:58 into the first overtime to take the Ohio Athletic Conference match up 2-1 Saturday (Oct. 26) night at Wilmington.
A controversial penalty kick call in the 81st minute allowed Daniel Wicks to tie the game for the Quakers with his fifth goal of the season. "I thought the call was rather questionable, especially since the referee let play go for a moment after the contact, " Pioneer's Head Coach
Joe Bergin said. "All night long there had been substantial contact in both penalty boxes on any free kick and he picked that time to start making the calls."
The Pioneers had taken the lead only 10 minutes earlier when Sophomore
Taylor Reasoner (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) scored his first career goal on a shot from outside the box that nestled in the lower right corner. "I was thrilled for Taylor because he has worked so hard to get that first career goal. We moved him back into the midfield for this game as I wanted to take advantage of some of the things he offers from that role and it paid off for us," said Bergin.
Reasoner's goal capped off a furious stretch of the match that saw end to end action. The Pioneers were clearly buoyed by senior goalkeeper
Chris Stollar's (Marietta/Marietta) heroics. Stollar had a sequence of three saves in a row that had Wilmington's players shaking their heads in disbelief. For the night Stollar recorded nine saves which moved him into a second place tie on the Pioneers all-time career saves list. Stollar is now even with Bergin, with 377.
The Quakers struck quickly in the overtime as Markus Tornberg found himself unmarked in front of Marietta's goal after a desperate scramble by the Pioneers to clear the ball. Tornberg made no mistake and sent the Pioneers to their fifth overtime defeat of the season. "I'm stunned by our inability to get a result in overtime games this year," Bergin said. "As we move forward in changing the culture of this program, this will have to be an area of focus."
The loss dropped the Pioneers record to 3-12-1 and 0-6-1 in the OAC. Victories earlier in the day by Heidelberg University and Capital University sealed the Pioneers fate as spoilers in the OAC playoff race. A loss by the Quakers (6-11-1, 3-4 OAC), who sit tied for seventh, would have put a serious dent in their hopes but those hopes were rescued by Tornberg's golden goal. The top six make the playoffs.
Marietta returns to action Wednesday (Oct. 30) in a home conference match against Otterbein University. Kick off at Marietta Field is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Fans can follow the Pioneers all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter.
