BETHANY, West Virginia — The Marietta College men's soccer team turned in a dominating performance in its last non-conference match of the season. The Pioneers downed Bethany College, 2-0, Wednesday (Oct. 2) afternoon. Marietta heads into Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 5-4 overall record. The Bison slip to 1-9 on the season.
"Today's win was very professional like. The execution of our game plan put us on the path to this win. Overall, we continue to fine tune parts of our game in an effort to be ready for a tough OAC schedule," Marietta head coach
Joe Bergin said. "Today's win carries us into conference on a three-game winning streak. We rested quite a few guys today and got some other guys some minutes which we hope will help us down the road. It all gets very real starting Saturday against a very good ONU team."
Marietta controlled the match from start to finish. With an overwhelming advantage in possession, the Pioneers outshot Bethany 24-3 and had a commanding 19-1 edge in corner kicks.
The Pioneers got on the board off a set piece in the 34th minute.
Jonah Ackerson (Beavercreek, Ohio/Beavercreek) sent a corner into the box where
Caden Ferguson (Mars, PA./Mars Area) buried it in the back of the net for his second goal of the season.
A penalty kick less than two minutes into the second half extended the Marietta lead to 2-0.
Gavin Long (Surrey, United Kingdom/John Fisher School) converted the penalty for his sixth goal of the season.
Trevor Dykstra (Jamestown, N.Y./Falconer Central) went the distance in net for the Pioneers and recorded a pair of saves and his second clean sheet of the fall. Torben Grether faced the Marietta barrage and posted 14 saves in the losing effort.
Marietta opens Ohio Athletic Conference play on Saturday (Oct. 5) when perennial league powerhouse Ohio Northern University visits for a 7 p.m. match.
Fans can follow all of the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
